


Moondrop

by Awesome_Sauce432



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Abusive Parents, Alternate Universe, Angst, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/F, Fluff, Gaslighting, IT'S GAY, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, It's The Movie But Lavorregard I Don't Know What To Tell You, Mutual Pining, Tags Will Probably Get Updated As I Think Of Things Lol, Tangled AU, Temporary Character Death, The Traveler Is Mother Gothel Just Everything About Him Is Shady Alright, slowburn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2019-10-22 06:41:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 19
Words: 53,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17657879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Awesome_Sauce432/pseuds/Awesome_Sauce432
Summary: The kingdom of Nicodranas is famous for its legends. Legends of a flower grown from the tears of the moon, a flower that could grant eternal life and heal fatal wounds. Legends of a lost princess, a missing king, a grieving queen. Legends of a stolen crown, a criminal with more ties to the kingdom than she wanted, and a stream of floating lanterns that brought it all together. And of course, the eternal legend of two girls from entirely different worlds with more in common than they might think, and their love which brought the legends from unfinished stories to happy endings.(Tangled AU, Updates on Sundays and Wednesdays)





	1. Chapter 1

Once upon a time, there was the large island kingdom of Nicodranas. Connected to the neighbouring continent by a narrow, well-guarded bridge, it was small but prosperous, with a generally happy populace. The kingdom was known for its music, art, poetry, and fishing, as well as its reclusive but beloved royal family, who had guarded the kingdom for generations.

 

The other thing the kingdom was known for was its legends, tales of sea beasts and fairy kingdoms. But most notable of all was the legend of the moondrop. It is said that once in a hundred lifetimes, when all the stars align and everything in the world is balanced just right, a single drop of moonlight falls to the earth. From where it landed, a flower would grow, a moondrop. Glowing with silver light, the moondrop was said to have magical powers, giving those who could find it and who knew the song that acted as the key to its power limitless youth and unimaginable healing, something that even the ordinary magic of the world could not grant.

 

The legend of the moondrop flower was known to all throughout the kingdom, to the point that the silver flower was the symbol of the kingdom itself and its royal family. But it was just that, a legend. A sweet tale that inspired budding adventurers and was a wonderful tale to tell children before bedtime, but nothing more than that.

 

Except for one.

 

This one person, a single traveler with dreams of power and a talent for magic himself, discovered the flower high on the rocks of the Nicodranian cliffs, unknown to all but himself. But rather than sharing his discovery, he hid the flower even more, covering it up with brush and rocks that made it all but invisible to everyone except him.

 

He hoarded its power, keeping himself young for decades, centuries, millennia even as the kingdom continued to grow and the details of the legend were lost to the ages, the lyrics of the song faded into distant memory to all but him. It didn’t matter how many years passed, for all he needed to do was visit the flower once every few days, and his age would vanish like snow melting in the face of the spring sun, leaving him youthful once again.

 

So it continued for generations, until one fateful day when the Queen, already burdened by pregnancy, fell deathly ill. When no regular healing magic or natural remedies could cure her, the King, distraught by the possibility and seeming inevitability of losing both his wife and unborn child, ordered for the search of the flower, his last hope to save his family.

 

The king himself joined in the search, going beyond the borders of their kingdom in his quest for the flower. He never returned, some believing that he couldn’t bear to return without the flower lest he returns to find his wife and child long deceased, abandoning his kingdom in his premature grief. Others believed he’d befallen some terrible fate himself.

 

But it was a small boy, who heard of the search for the moondrop and desired to make himself useful, who proved the key to salvation. He climbed the cliffs and the mountains, too young to believe his parents' warnings that it was hopeless. And it was he who found the flower, nestled between sticks and brush but unmistakable.

 

He led the guards to the flower, and while the kingdom celebrated, the lone immortal traveler watched from the shadows, furious at his source of life being taken away. For while the moondrop could provide limitless youth, it had a price. If one didn’t continue to sing its song and receive its power, soon their body would waste to their true age, bones crackling and crumbling in minutes. The traveler knew he would die within days if he didn’t get that magic back, and he refused to die.

 

The flower was taken back to the castle where, guards and workers uncertain of how to activate the power of the flower, ground it up into a tea, serving it to the Queen. Within minutes, her condition improved. By that night the Queen was completely cured, to the delight of everyone around her. By the next morning, her daughter was born, a tiefling like her mother with blue skin like her father, with soft chubby cheeks and a full head of brilliant silver hair that shone in the moonlight.

 

The kingdom rejoiced, while the traveler seethed. At night, barely two days after the birth of the princess, he knew he could wait no longer. He climbed the castle, sweeping into the royal bedroom, approaching the crib where the princess slept.

 

With trembling and crooked hands, the traveler ran his fingers through the infant’s hair, the notes of the song croaking through his lips. In front of his eyes, the silver hair began to glow, the familiar magic coursing into his skin, wiping away all traces of age.

 

A young man once more, the traveler’s shock at seeing the magic of his flower now contained in this girl quickly soured to grim determination. Taking a knife, he cut off a lock of the princess' hair, only for it to turn blue in his hands, the magic completely erased.

 

There was only one thing left to do. The traveler would not give up his power, his youth, no matter what he had to do to keep it.

 

A harsh gust of wind awoke the Queen, a sense of dread settling into her gut. She looked towards the crib that held her precious daughter, her only family while her husband remained missing, for comfort, only to see it askew, the doors to the balcony open as a figure leapt into the open air, a bundle in his arms.

 

The kingdom gained a new legend that night. A legend which spoke of the cry of a mother that could be heard throughout the land, of a renewed search not for a flower but a lost princess. A search that would remain fruitless for many, many years.

 

But not forever. For eventually, the legend of the lost princess would be resolved, a family would be reunited, love would bloom, a criminal would find a future and all would be well. Or at least better than it had been.

 

The criminal had to die for it to happen, but after the event she was happy to brag that it had been worth it.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Jester hummed to herself, hanging in the air with a bucket of coloured water. Her tail was wrapped around a support beam while one arm gripped a long length of her hair that was attached to a hook that had been attached this high along the walls for this very purpose, giving her something to grip while she went about her work.

 

It was very useful, allowing her to climb up high to do cleaning, dusting, painting and, like this current moment, setting up pranks.

 

She tied the bucket into position above the single window of the tower with some string before slowly lowering herself down, running the string down the walls and carefully tucking it along the cracks in the stone to make it as invisible as possible. After setting up the trigger of the trap she took a step back to admire her handiwork, unlooping her hair and gathering it up to make sure it couldn’t trip the trigger accidentally. It was always difficult when she had as much hair as she did and as little space as she did in her tower, but she made it work.

 

“Perfect.” She said, grinning, before looking down to a small table on one side of the tower, just big enough for two people to sit at comfortably. “Don’t you think, Sprinkle?”

 

Sprinkle, the crimson weasel who had climbed up into the tower one day in search of food and never left was sleeping peacefully in the middle of the table, enjoying the sun that streamed in through the window. He made a small snuffling sound, which Jester decided to take as a ‘yes, this is absolutely perfect and Father would never see it coming’.

 

Satisfied, Jester made sure that everything else she had set up was still ready to go, before going about doing all the other chores she had neglected in favour of making sure her prank would be perfect. That kept her very busy as the sun slowly began to set until she heard a faint voice from outside.

  
“Jester! I’m back!”

 

A smile stretching across her face, Jester gathered up her what sometimes seemed like endless lengths of hair, calling out a quick ‘Hold on!’ before throwing most of it out the window. She looked out, seeing her father take a quick step back to avoid being hit by the hair (a wise choice. Once she had hidden a flour bomb in there and he had gotten covered) before he looped some around his feet, holding on tight.

 

After making sure he was ready, Jester began to pull him up, slowly taking steps back towards a bookcase, where she had hidden a nice, far more improved flour bomb. Her heart thumping with anticipation, she slowly pulled him up.

 

When he appeared in the window frame, he grabbed hold of it, and only then did Jester let go of her hair, reaching for the flour bomb and throwing it at him as hard as she could.

 

He ducked immediately, the bomb sailing over his head and into the air, disappearing from view. Jester let her face fall, mildly disappointed by the loss of a perfectly good flour bomb.

 

“Jester my dear, you’ll have to do better than that.” Father said, a wry smile on his face from beneath his forest green cloak.

 

“Dang it.” Jester groaned, folding her arms and letting her tail flick around behind her like it always did when she was actually irritated. Father chuckled, taking off his hood to reveal shaggy red hair with streaks of gray, perfectly clean and just waiting for a soaking as he took a step forward.

 

She couldn’t help but smirk just a little, and Father noticed it immediately, realising his mistake too late. The string pulled tautly and he looked up just in time to see a bucketful of bright pink water hurtling towards him.

 

For a few moments he stood there, now completely soaking wet, hair plastered to his face. Jester burst out in gleeful giggles, pumping her arms.

 

“Yes! Yes I got you!”

 

“Good thing my basket is waterproof.” Father said mildly, before shaking excess water out of her hair, a grin blossoming on his face. “Well done, my flower. But if you hadn’t smiled, I wouldn’t have seen it coming at all.”

 

“Yeaaaaah, but I still got youuuuu!” Jester bounced up to him, taking his cloak as he pulled it off, hanging it over the window frame to dry out in the last hour or so of sunlight.

 

“That you did.” Father patted her hair. “Now, help me with dinner.”

 

Still flush with triumph, Jester happily took the basket, unpacking ingredients and going about preparing dinner. As she worked, she listened to her father chat happily about the next few days.

 

“Now, you can’t use those almonds because we hardly have any left and I’ll need them.” He was saying, grabbing a cloth to pat his hair dry. Jester’s ears perked up.

 

“Oh? What do you need them for?” She asked innocently. “A special birthday surprise?”

 

“Perhaps.” Father said, his eyes sparkling with secrets.

 

Jester pursed her lips, staring at him as if that would convince him to tell her. When it didn’t, she looked back down to what she was doing, looking at her father out of the corner of her eyes. He was happy, some wrinkles at the corner of his eyes but still sprightly. Not even falling to one of her pranks, a feat that she only managed once in a blue moon, had dropped his mood. If there was ever a time to talk about what she wanted to talk about, it was now.

 

“Sooooooo,” She began, leaning sideways a little towards him, keeping her voice light and playful. “You know it’s my birthday soon.”

 

“I believe we were just talking about it,” Father said, beginning to chop up some onion.

 

“Yeah, but this year I’m turning _eighteen_ ,” Jester said. “So like, it’s super special.”

 

“How so?”

 

Jester faltered a little but quickly recovered herself. “In all my books! They always say that eighteen is when they become adults. When they’re ready to see the world!”

 

Father didn’t pause his chopping, but Jester could sense one of his eyebrows raising, the way it always did when Jester talked about the outside world.

 

“And this means… what for you?” His voice grew a little sharper, and Jester hesitated. But she’d come this far, she’d dreamed for this long, she couldn’t back down yet.

 

“Well… you know the lights that always show up in the sky-”

 

“The lights again?” Now Father stopped his chopping, placing down the knife and turning to the side, one hand on his hip. “I’ve told you, the stars-”

 

“But they’re _not_ the stars.” Jester sighed, wringing her hands together. “Stars don’t move like those do, and they only appear on my birthday and I-I wanted to see them.”

 

“You can’t see them from the window?”

 

“I want to see them up close! Maybe find out where they came from-”

 

“I don’t want to talk about this, Jester.” Father said, his mouth hardened in a thin line. “I’ve told you before, you can’t go out there, it’s not safe.”

 

“But you go out there all the time!” Jester took a step closer to her father, who just pivoted and walked away, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I thought, if it was just one night and you could come with me-”

 

“This is not up for discussion.” Jester took another step forward, her heart racing.

 

“But Father-”  

 

“Jester!” Father spun around to face her, his hands balled into fists and his eyes flaring up.

 

Jester immediately froze, her hands held against her chest, her tongue caught in her throat. For a few moments they stood there, the air cold like ice between them. Then Father sighed heavily, rubbing his temple and relaxing his posture.

 

“Great.” He muttered, loud enough for Jester to easily hear. “Now I’m the bad guy.”

 

Jester’s stomach flipped, and guilt rushed through her for pushing it. He was only trying to protect her, he knew. He had no end of stories of terrible things that could happen if you went outside, especially someone like her.

 

“I’m sorry.” She whispered, lowering her hands and looking down at the ground, her eyes following the trail of her hair as it crossed the floor, winding around table legs.

 

“Come here, flower.” Father said, gesturing for her to come closer. She stepped towards him, still looking down at the ground. When she was just in front of him, he cupped her chin with his hand, lifting her face up to look at him. His face was soft again, all the anger and upset it had been holding before vanished like it had never existed. “You know I love you.”

 

“Yes, I know.” Father ran his other hand through her hair, saying nothing for a few seconds while she waited for what he’d say next with bated breath.

 

“You know I only want what’s best for you.”

 

“Yes.”

 

He inhaled, and suddenly his face grew cold, and Jester felt her heart skip a beat. “Don’t ever talk to me about leaving this tower again.”

 

Jester bit the inside of her cheek, staring into her father’s eyes. “Yes, Father.”

 

His lips curled upwards into a tiny, prideful smile and he opened his arms, allowing her to step into a hug. “That’s my girl.” He whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of her head.

 

He leaned back, and Jester looked up at him again, plastering a tiny smile on her face.

 

“Now, let’s get back to dinner, shall we?” Father walked back to the counter where they’d left the food with a wry half-smile on his face, and Jester followed, throwing all her attention into the cooking. After a few more minutes her father started up another loose stream of chatter, light and cheerful as if nothing had happened.

 

Jester joined in, joking and explaining how she’d set up her prank, warning Father that she’d get him again soon. She was thankful that he wasn’t too mad, she hated it when he got really mad. But her rejected question flittered in the back of her mind, sinking like a weight on her heart. She glanced over to one of the walls in the tower, where her newest painting was partially hidden by a curtain. Squeezed in between a hundred different coloured donuts and a flower made entirely out of small, subtly dick-shaped petals, was a painting of herself. Resting on top of a tree, her hair streaming down to the ground like a river of silver, watching up at the night sky in wonder as the floating lights drifted above. She’d always wondered what it would be like to get close. To see what they really were.

 

After dinner, she grabbed the brush and chairs, just like every night. Her father sat down and brushed her hair while she sang the song she sang every night. She sat down, singing slowly and sweetly, feeling the light tug of the brush pulling at her hair, Father always so gentle.

 

Her hair glowed a brilliant silver as she sang, filling the room with a soft light that flickered and danced on the walls, mixing the golden glow of candles. Facing the window, Jester could see out into the night sky, where hundreds upon thousands of tiny stars twinkled at her from space.

 

It was different than the floating lights, the ones that appeared every year on her birthday without fail. The floating lights were silver too, bright and sparkling so they did look like stars, but they were so much larger, so much brighter. They always started from somewhere beyond the horizon of the secluded hollow where Jester’s tower sat, a tiny bubble of light that slowly drifted into a sea of silver lights that made their way across the night sky.

 

It was always the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, something even the flowery descriptions in her books or the paintings on her walls couldn’t compare to.

 

She’d wanted to see them up close for years, imagined travelling past the safety of her tower walls into the great unknown just for the chance to see what they really were.

 

At least she’d still be able to see them from her window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess whose back yeet. Once again i fail to stay away from writing for longer than two days. This time with more fun AUs!!!! The Traveler is Gothel because it was either him or the Gentleman and if it was the Gentleman then who was gonna be the king??? So yeah soz Traveler but ur evil here bye.
> 
> Also at this point i think it's impossible for me to post anything any earlier than 10pm. It's near or past midnight or nothing yeet.


	2. Chapter 2

Beau was lying flat on the roof of the castle, edging to the skylight that would be her entrance. Looking down into the hall below, she could see her quarry right below her, exactly where it was supposed to be. 

 

The crown of the lost princess, a silver tiara inlaid with diamonds and sapphires, resting on a soft pillow. Surrounding it, watching every window and door to the hall, was a circle of guards. Exactly the same as every other time Beau had climbed up here to scope it out. It was potentially the single most guarded object in the kingdom, even more protected than the Queen herself. 

 

If she managed to get it, it would sell for more gold than she could ever imagine. Even split three ways, it would be more than enough to finally get her off this kingdom and living somewhere decent on the mainland. All she had to do was take it. 

 

“How’s it look Dairon?” The gruff voice of her companion broke her out of her daydream before it could really get started and she turned to fix Lorenzo with an irritated glance. 

 

“It looks exactly the way I said it would.” She said, getting up to her knees and accepting the rope that Lorenzo’s brother Laurence handed her, tying it around her waist. “All the guards are so busy watching the windows and doors at ground level they don’t have time to look above, or at the crown.” 

 

“Wonderful.” Lorenzo muttered, looping lengths of the rope around his arm and handing off the rest of his brother. “Now don’t do something stupid while you’re down there.”

 

“I’m wounded.” Beau flashed a wry grin, holding one hand to her chest while testing the tightness of the rope around her waist with the other. It was tight but not constricting, just right. “If I didn’t know better, I’d almost think you didn’t trust me.”

 

“The only thing we trust about you is that you’re small enough to fit in these windows.” Laurence deadpanned. “And smart enough not to fuck us over.” 

 

Beau’s smile widened slightly. “Well boys, this has been heartwarming, but I’m ready to become the most wanted person in this kingdom.” 

 

Lorenzo grunted in something that may have been an agreement, while Laurence carefully lifted open the window Beau had been peering in. She dropped her legs in, dangling them for a moments and watching the guards. When none of them seemed to notice the opening of the skylight, she dropped the rest of the way in, feeling the lack of gravity for a split second before the rope pulled taut.

 

She looked up over her shoulder to see the faces of the Shepherd Brothers, their faces grim and tight with focus, carefully letting the rope down to lower Beau further and further into the room. 

 

If something went wrong before she got the crown, she had no doubt that they’d probably drop her and run, but she got all the way to the ground without a sound, without a single guard looking her way. 

 

She took a moment to admire the tiara, the way it sparkled in the sunlight, the size of the jewels. It was indeed beautiful, even if she wasn’t much of a jewelry person. Such a pity it had never been able to be used, but hey, one kingdoms loss was another criminals gain. 

 

Picking up the crown by the back and tucking it safely into her satchel, Beau tugged on the rope to let the boys know she was ready to be pulled up. Halfway up back to the skylight, one of the guards sneezed, muttering a quick ‘pardon me’. Eh, she was far enough up.

 

“Gesundheit.” She called out cheerily, taking great delight in the brief moment of absolute silence that followed it. Then there was an exasperated sigh above, and half a dozen gasps below. 

 

Guards spun around, seeing the crown-less pedestal before looking up to see Beau halfway through the skylight, giving them a quick salute and wriggling out of the rope before shaking the satchel and darting away, cackling at the shouts of alarm that they left behind. 

 

“You just couldn’t resist, could you?” Laurence scowled at her as they ran along the roofs of the castle, heading towards the back that would lead to the forests and safety. 

 

Beau just flashed him a grin as they leapt from rooftops to balconies to walls to cliffsides, not for the first time being thankful that the back of the castle was built into the mountains of Nicodranas. 

 

“I got the crown, didn’t I?” She shook the satchel before slinging it over her shoulder, the relatively light weight of the goods held within feeling nothing like the thousands it was worth. 

 

Both Laurence and Lorenzo just grunted at her, both of them far too serious and focused on the job for Beau’s taste. But they were the muscle to Beau’s speed and ability to get into small spaces, so they worked well together. They were nothing close to friends, but more like acquaintances that could mostly tolerate each other. In the criminal underworld, that was all you needed. 

 

They made their way down the mountain into the thick forests of Nicodranas, wary of the horns and hoofbeats that would signal the incoming guard rushing to arrest all three of them and probably execute them. The forests would hide them, hopefully, mostly trees and brush and the occasional house or tavern that were usually occupied by those in a bit too much trouble to live in the city proper. It was vast and dense and tended to be a maze to those who knew it well. There were places even Beau, who spent a lot of time running through it to avoid arrest, hadn’t explored. 

 

The trio made their way to a well-worn dirt road, one they had to pass through in order to get to the meeting place where they’d be able to sell the crown, get their money, and say goodbye to each other forever. They paused to catch their breaths, leaning against a thick oak tree that was plastered with various wanted posters.

 

Beau couldn’t help herself, scanning through to find her own, to see if they’d done what they  _ always  _ did.

 

“Oh for gods sakes.” She scowled, ripping off the paper from the tree and squinting at the mostly unflattering depiction of her, but more importantly, at the name underneath the words ‘Wanted Dead Or Alive’. “They just can’t let that go, can they?”

 

Laurence chuckled, running a hand through his hair. “I dunno  _ Tracy _ , I think it suits you. Perfect name for a little girl.” 

 

“This little girl will punch your lights out,  _ Leronzo _ .” Beau hissed, crunching up the paper and throwing it over her shoulder. She uses a dumbass covername  _ one  _ time while she’d still been sorting out her proper alias, and the Crownsguard never let her forget it. 

 

Laurence’s face fell into a sneer, folding his arms and taking a step towards her, drawing himself up to his full way-taller-than-her height. “I swear to gods, if you call me that  _ one more-” _

 

“Let’s not kill each other before we collect our payment?” Lorenzo was leaning against the tree, pinching the bridge of his nose. “One job without bickering, that’s all I asked for with you two.”

 

Beau rolled her eyes, stretching her arms above her head and opening her mouth to retort in the most smartass way she could think of when a distant sound caught her ears. A rhythmic thundering, slowly growing louder and closer.

 

“Ah shit. That’s quicker than usual.” Lorenzo said, glaring down the direction of the road the sound was coming from.

 

“We did steal their most precious treasure.” Beau said, finishing off her stretch before bouncing on her toes and breaking into a sprint, darting across the road into back into the forest. The brothers followed her, and she was far quicker than them but she kept at their pace, never getting so far ahead that they might think she was abandoning them. Always easier to not betray partners if she could. 

 

The thundering got louder and louder, and Beau felt her heart begin to pound with the knowledge that even if they ducked into the forest and leapt over branches, horses were a lot quicker than people. Soon the sound of horses was joined by the manic barking of dogs, and Beau’s heart sank. Fucking tracker dogs. 

 

As the guards seemed to get closer and closer, Beau felt herself start to panic. She looked around the forest, trying to figure out where she was, sort out a plan. She could  _ not  _ get caught. Close to getting caught, sure. But she could  _ never  _ actually get caught. She wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction. 

 

A half-baked idea in her head, she pivoted to the side, leading the two brothers and the guards around trees, down an old beaten path that cut off with a short smooth cliff. Smooth enough that it was difficult to climb, but short enough that three people standing on shoulders would be able to do it. Most importantly, it was tall enough that horses wouldn’t be able to follow, and there was no other easy path that led up to it. 

 

“The fuck?” Laurence said, all three of them spinning around with their backs to the cliff, the thundering of horses and cries of the guards getting louder with every passing second. 

 

“We can climb! Get me up to the top, I can help pull you up!” Beau spoke quickly, turning back around to the cliff. “They won’t be able to follow us!”

 

“I don’t think so, Dairon.” Lorenzo sneered. “Not without giving us the crown first.”

 

Beau frowned, holding one hand over the satchel. “Do we really have time for this?”

 

“Either give us the crown, or we throw you to the guards first.” Lorenzo stabbed a finger down the path, and Beau grimaced, looking back between the brothers and the satchel, her mind racing to find a solution that ended with her getting what she wanted. 

 

“Fine!” She pulled the satchel off and tossed it to Lorenzo, who gestured to his brother to give him a leg up. Beau tapped her foot impatiently as the two sorted themselves out, quite quickly, but considering their current circumstances, it seemed to take a millennia. 

 

As soon as they were steady she began climbing up them, taking great care to step on their shoulders and stick her boots into their necks and faces and other sensitive areas as much as she could.

 

She scrambled over the top, taking a moment to roll onto her back and catch her breath, a giddy smile on her face. Bingo. 

 

“Now help us up!” Lorenzo shouted. Beau rolled onto her knees, peering down the cliff at the brothers, Lorenzo holding his hand up expectantly, the cacophony of the quickly guards drowning out the sound of her heartbeat. 

 

She looked back down at Lorenzo, her grin growing wider into a triumphant smile. 

 

“Sorry boys. A prize is always sweeter when you don’t have to share.” She waved the satchel in her hand, snatched from Lorenzo’s arms while she’d been busy jabbing him the back of the knees with her boots. She didn’t like to betray partners if she didn’t have to… but right now, she had to.

 

Lorenzo’s face fell into something of pure horror and he looked down at his other, now empty hand. But Beau was already gone, racing off into the forest and cackling gleefully as she went, the sounds of the Shepherd Brother’s betrayed curses and shouts like music to her ears. 

 

That should keep the guards busy for a while. 

 

But it was only a matter of time before the tracking dogs got sent after her too, so there was no time to enjoy her victory, not yet. She had to find somewhere to hide. 

 

She sprinted as quickly as she took, taking random turns onto unused paths that she’d never seen before, her only goal to just  _ get away _ . If she could just find somewhere to hide until nightfall, until her trail went cold, she’d be free and clear. 

 

What felt like hours seemed to pass, every sound in the forest a possible indicator of her pursuers sending her scrambling into another turn. The ground grew more and more overgrown with every step, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise that even someone as nimble as her couldn’t stay on her feet while sprinting at top speed forever.

 

She tripped while running down a hill into a small valley, of course, cartwheeling and tumbling all the way to the bottom, narrowly avoiding smacking into a massive vine covered cliff-face at the bottom. 

 

For a few moments she just lay there, cursing her own inability to stay on her feet. Then she remember her cargo and she sat up, ripping the satchel off her shoulders and pulling the tiara out. Miraculously, it was undamaged, not a single stone out of place. 

 

Beau grinned, before beginning to chuckle. Holy fuck, maybe she’d gotten away with it! 

 

She stood up, intending to lean against the vines of the cliff to catch her breath. Instead, her hands phased through nothing but air, seeming to disappear into the leaves and rocks. She yelped instinctively out of surprise and careened through the illusion, just managing to catch herself before she face planted. Again. 

 

Finding herself in a small shaded tunnel, Beau blinked and turned around, seeing that the way out looked clear. Curious, she took a step out and looked behind her to see the rocks and vines there again.

 

Step back in, nothing. Step back out, rocks and vines. 

 

A one-way illusion. Those on the inside could see the true path, but for those on the outside… nothing but rock. That was some old-school magic, the kind that hardly anyone knew how to use anymore. 

 

“Huh.” She said, before an idea hit her. Now this… this could be an excellent hiding place. This kind of magic was old, and wasn’t the kind that needed to be reapplied. Whoever did it might be long gone. Perhaps they’d also seen fit to put in some anti-tracking magic as well. 

 

In any case, it was better than Beau’s original plan of finding a really high tree, climbing it, and waiting until sunrise the next day. 

 

Curious and no longer running purely on adrenaline and thrill, Beau stepped gingerly through the illusion again, and through the tunnel. It was fairly short, and opened up into a massive clearing, surrounded by cliffs on all sides. Late morning sunlight streamed down and cast brilliant shadows, and a small stream appeared, fed by some underground lake. The smell of flowers filled the air, and there was a soft, tranquil atmosphere.

 

Most noticeable, however, was the giant-ass tower smack in the middle of all of it. 

 

Undeniably old, it was tall and narrow, with a single window set almost at the very top. The cobblestone on the outside was thick but clear, and uneven enough that there could be quite a few good footholds. 

 

Distantly, Beau considered the possibility of someone still living in this tower. Someone magical, someone dangerous. 

 

She weighed that possibility against her desire to know what was inside the tower. 

 

Curiosity won out. It almost always did. 

 

Pulling out two small daggers that she rarely used (why bother when her fists were far more available) and double-checking that the satchel was securely fastened over her shoulder, Beau began the slow and arduous task of scaling the tower. 

 

By the time she reached the windowsill, she was breathing heavily, forever thankful she’d spent so much time climbing up walls and buildings that she had no fear of heights. She more or less rolled into the building, landing on a clean wooden floor.

 

Jumping to her feet, Beau immediately double-checked the crown again. As curious as she was to investigate the rest of this tower, that tiara was her ticket out of this hellhole they called Nicodranas. 

 

She pulled the crown out of the satchel, admiring it in sunlight that streamed through the window. The view was actually quite nice here, she could see why someone would choose to live here. Which reminded her, she really needed to make sure no one was living-

 

_ CLANG! _

 

Without time to finish her thought, Beau promptly face planted onto the ground for just the second time that day, this time without getting back up again. The crown fell from her hands and skittered to the side next to her limp body.

 

Behind her stood Jester, wielding a pink and purple swirled frying pan, a look of horror on her face that only grew as she took a tender step closer, staring down at the unconscious girl on the floor of her home.

 

“Oooooh… fuck.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> look lorenzo and leronzo is hilarious and i will not apologise for that
> 
> Also Beau's name is still Beauregard, her Criminal Alias a la Flynn Rider is just Dairon, just to clear up any confusion. See ya next week yeet


	3. Chapter 3

“Shitfuckballsass _ fuck _ -” 

 

The frying pan clattered to the ground while Jester gaped at what she’d done. Shit, had she just  _ killed  _ someone?

 

A closer examination that involved nudging the body in the ribs revealed the mystery woman was indeed still breathing, completely unconscious but in one piece. Shit, she’d just knocked someone unconscious. How had this person found her? Why was she here? How did she even get up here? Was she after her hair, her magic? Oh gods, Father was out collecting food what was she supposed to do oh shiiiiiit-

 

She took a moment to try and calm herself down, looking out the window to make sure there was no one else following the woman before running her fingers through a chunk of her hair, biting her lip and pacing around to figure out what to do next. 

 

It was fine. It wasn’t like she’d done anything wrong, right? She just defended herself from this possibly dangerous intruder. It was what Father would want her to do, right?

 

In fact… it was  _ exactly  _ what Father would want her to do. An intruder had arrived for possibly nefarious purposes and she’d managed to handle it all by herself without really putting herself in danger at all. 

 

She  _ could  _ handle herself! If she showed Father this and told him what she’d done, there was no way he could deny she wouldn’t be able to go outside! Perhaps her birthday wish of seeing the lights would come true after all! 

 

A giddy grin spread across her face, before she remembered that she did currently have an unconscious body on her hands. That could wake up at any moment.

 

“Ooooooh.” She bolted through the tower, rummaging through drawers for rope that she hadn’t had to use in a long time, not when she had her hair that worked twice as well. 

 

When she found it she got to work tying up the body, rolling it around and squeezing the rope underneath her. The intruder was not quite the horrifying, disfigured monster that Father had always made out the kind of people who would go after her to be. She wasn’t particularly tall, for once, probably only an inch or two taller than her. There were some scratches and bruises that marred her skin, but her hair was neat and tied up nicely, and her clothes were less bloodstained than she’d imagined, albeit a bit ragged and dirty. 

 

Most of her instinct told her to stay far away, to just tie her up until Father got home and then that’d be the end of it, but Jester was curious. She’d never seen anyone else besides Father, and this person looked… nice. She reminded her more of the protagonists in all her romance stories than the villains, than the kind of people who would chase after her and hurt her and steal her magic. 

 

Jester glanced to the side, looking at the strange decorated metal circle that the intruder had been holding when Jester had knocked her out. It hadn’t been broken by the fall, and she picked it up, hoping it would give her more of a clue as to whether this person truly meant her harm or not. 

 

Unfortunately, she had no idea what it was. Casting a wary look at the still unconscious intruder, Jester decided that she wasn’t going to wake up anytime soon, before focusing her attention back on the metal ring. There were lots of gemstones decorating it, mostly on one side of it rather than evenly spread around. 

 

“Hmm.” Jester looked through the ring, turning it over in her hands, stuck her arm through it, anything she could think of. Nothing happened, so it probably wasn’t magical. Or if it was, it needed a codeword or something to activate it, and since Jester didn’t know what it was, it may as well have been non-magical. 

 

She perched it on her head, letting it settle around her hair, most of the gems facing the front. That felt right, the ring comfortably sized so that it fit easily, nothing poking her skin or anything. 

 

Jester stood up, walking to a mirror and admiring herself with the metal ring on. There was a smile on her face when she looked at herself and she rocked from side to side, enjoying how nicely the colours of the metal ring with her eyes and hair, like it was made for her.

 

Surely someone with something as pretty as this couldn’t be  _ that  _ bad. 

 

Still, it wasn’t like she could let her go or anything. Father definitely wouldn’t approve of that. 

 

Jester placed the ring back in the satchel she’d found it in, tucking the satchel away in one of her many hiding places, in a jar next to the kitchen counter. She was already imagining the best way to reveal it all to Father, to heighten the theatrics of all and make it sound even more exciting. 

 

She could picture it, Father coming home only to find that Jester had managed to take out an intruder all by herself! Not only that, she’d been able to tie her up, keep her subdued, and find some really pretty jewelry, since Father liked pretty things like that. Even if he didn’t like it, Jester wouldn’t mind a pretty metal ring that sat nicely on her head. 

 

With the metal ring safely hidden away, Jester returned to her other task of hiding the intruder. She couldn’t just  _ leave  _ her on the ground! Where was the pizazz in that? Nope, it was dramatic reveal or bust. Father would expect nothing less. 

 

She spent ten minutes ripping clothes out of a cupboard on the main floor of the tower, throwing them onto her bed on the upper floor to be returned later. 

 

Then she hoisted the intruder into her arms to shove her into the cupboard. The intruder was a  _ lot  _ heavier than she looked, which Jester soon realised was because she was ripped. Jester was quite muscular herself, albeit with a little bit of body fat, thanks to her daily routine of climbing all over the tower to do chores and set up pranks coupled with an (according to Father) unhealthy addiction to pastries. 

 

This girl however, hardly had any body fat. She was lean and fit, and suddenly her climbing all the way up to the tower seemed far more doable. Maybe she climbed towers all the time. Wow. 

 

Jester shook her head, pushing away those thought and the butterflies in her stomach before continuing to try and get the intruder into the cupboard and stay there without falling out as soon as Jester took her hands away. 

 

It took five attempts and possibly a minor concussion for the intruder, but she did it. The battering would probably keep her unconscious for longer, at least. 

 

Clapping her hands together, Jester grinned, before bustling about to fix everything up the way it had been before. This was going to be the greatest surprise  _ ever _ . She was going to see those lights no matter what it took! There was no way Father could deny she was ready now.

 

When she heard Father call out for her, after only an hour or two but what felt like forever, she knew it was time. She pulled him up as quickly as he could, and when he arrived he automatically ducked and stepped to the side rather than forward, glancing all around him. 

 

Oh shit. In all her excitement over the intruder, she’d completely forgotten about trying a new prank! She’d had some really good ideas, too.

 

“Nothing this morning, Jester?” Father looked at her, a twinkle in his eyes. “I’m almost disappointed.”

 

“Maybe I’m just trying to get you to lower your guard.” Jester grinned, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. “Now, there’s something I need to telllll you-”

 

Father raised an eyebrow, hanging up his cloak while Jester began to edge her way towards the cupboard.

 

“Okay, so I know you said yesterday I couldn’t go out to see the lights tomorrow  _ but _ -” Father sighed theatrically, folding his arms together.

 

“Jester, I’ve already made my position on the matter clear-”

 

Jester bit the inside of her cheek, taking another step. It was for the lights. She could do it. “I know, I know, but if you let me tell you what happened I really think you’ll-”

 

“I said no. You’ll only get hurt and it’s just not safe-”

 

“But I can handle myself! I know I can because I-” Both of them were raising their voices now, and Jester’s was beginning to waver, her confidence starting to crack, her newly revitalised dream starting to sink back into the pits of fantasy. 

 

“Jester! This discussion ended yesterday and I won’t hear another word of it!” Father shouted, striking through the air with one hand until it stopped by his side. 

 

Jester flinched, her mouth frozen half-open, one hand on the door handle of the cupboard. “But…”

 

Father shook his head, and Jester hung her head, removing her hand from the door handle. “I’m sorry, Father.”

 

Father sighed, placing his basket down and walking to stand by the counter. “I know you’re growing up, my flower, I know the outside world might seem interesting. But it’s just not safe for you. If the wrong people caught sight of you, you could be gone before I even realised it. I can’t lose you.” 

 

Jester’s heart squeezed, her stomach flipping and her eyes welling up. She looked back in the direction of the cupboard. If she just opened the door… if she let the intruder fall out for Father to see… then what?

 

He might not let her go anyway. Perhaps there was nothing she could do to convince him.

 

“Oh, darling.” Father was looking back at her now and she stiffened up as if he could read her thoughts. He couldn’t. He had some magic, but nothing like that, even if sometimes it felt like he did. “Here I am, hoping to apologise for yesterday’s fight.”

 

“What?” Jester perked up a little, her voice ringing hollow in her ears. 

 

“You know I hate to see you upset. I’d already had a present planned for your birthday but I hoped to ask if there was something else you wanted as a special treat.” Father shook his head, and Jester’s mind raced. 

 

Something else. Something else that  _ she  _ could ask for. 

 

“No, no, wait.” She stammered, a hasty plan forming in her mind. Perhaps she  _ would  _ be able to see the lights. Permission or no. 

 

Father looked at her, his eyebrows arching. “Oh? You still care for me enough to want my presents?”

 

“Of course! Of course I still care about you!” Jester rushed forward, her voice bubbling with newfound energy. “I really am sorry-”

 

She wasn’t. Okay, she was a little. But not completely. 

 

Father smirked, his eyes sparkling. “I thought that might get you excited. Can you think of anything?”

 

Jester made a show of thinking very, very hard, but she already had something in mind. 

 

“Uh, what about some of those safflower plants I can use to make yellow paint? I ran out two weeks ago, but it’s so good.” She twiddled her thumbs together, plastering a hopeful expression on her face. 

 

“Safflower? That’s a long trip… three days at least. I’ll miss your birthday.” Father’s face fell a little, and Jester hastily tried to look as hopeful and adorable as possible. 

 

“Please? We could celebrate it together when we get back. I’ll pretend I’m still seventeen until you do!” 

 

Father hmmed, holding her gaze for a few terrifying moments. Jester’s heart was beating so fast she thought it would explode, but a tiny smile grew on Father’s face, and he gently stroked her hair. “Very well then. If it’s what you truly want, I’ll get as much safflower as I can carry, and I’ll leave as soon as I’ve had a rest.”

 

Jester beamed, leaning into her father’s touch. If all went well, the safflower would be an extra bonus. 

 

“Thank you, Father.” 

 

She got busy trying to get Father out of the tower as quickly as possible, while trying to make it seem that she  _ wasn’t _ doing that. But finally,  _ finally _ , he left, his forest green cloak wrapped around him and pressing a final gentle kiss to the top of her head. 

 

She waved to him as he left, calling out goodbyes and promising to behave and greet him with the most incredible prank  _ ever _ . She watched as he vanished through the brush that led to the outside world, waited another ten minutes just to be certain, and then she couldn’t contain herself any longer. 

 

Jester was positively  _ buzzing  _ with nervous and excited energy, bouncing on her toes and spinning around the room just to try and calm herself down a little. If anything, it did the opposite. 

 

“Oh my gods oh my gods oh my gods!” She squealed to Sprinkle, who could not care less if he tried, making his distaste very known when Jester picked him up and spin him around with her. 

 

So her plan hadn’t worked out quite as well as she’d hoped. But she had a new one. One of the hardest parts was complete, but now was time for the second hardest part. 

 

Try and convince a buff woman she’d knocked out with a frying pan to escort her to see the floating lights tomorrow night. It’d be fine, she told herself. She was very charming. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ya yeet


	4. Chapter 4

Fuck, she had a wicked headache. 

 

Beau grimaced and groaned, trying to rub her temples to try and ease the endless throbbing in her hand. Key word being ‘trying’ because her arms went absolutely nowhere. Damnit.

 

She opened her eyes and looked down to see her arms and wrists bound to the arms of an old wooden chair with lots of very fine silver thread, bunched together so that it was as strong as rope. Unfortunately the chair wasn’t old enough to be easily breakable, and the ropework was quite well done. Her legs and ankles were similarly tied up, and her chest was tied to the back of the chair as well. Just for fun, she pulled against the threads, but there was no give. 

 

The thread was surprisingly soft and silky. What a strange way to tie someone up.

 

She scowled, before suddenly realising the lack of a very familiar and very important satchel. Her head jerked up and swivelled around, trying to find it.

 

“Looking for something?” A voice came from somewhere behind her, with a distinct lilt of a child trying to copy their parents ‘stern voice’. That is, it was a little too high-pitched and not at all intimidating. 

 

Beau growled, taking a more detailed look around the room she found herself it. It was circular, and mostly cast in shadows, the only light being given off by circles that were arranged in a loose circle around her at a fair distance. That light was enough to see the worn wooden floors and the edges of brightly-patterns rugs, some paint splatter on the ground, and hints of nice, homely furniture, some jars stacked up against a box. She could see shadows of larger objects, perhaps cupboards or bookshelves, and the walls were covered in strange shadows and shades that suggested patterned wallpaper, albeit very uneven and in no pattern that she could decipher a beginning or end to. 

 

If she had to guess, she was in that tower she’d climbed up. A reasonable assumption, since that was the last place she remembered being. 

 

“Um, excuse me?” The voice took on a more irritated tone, not at all pleased with having been essentially ignored. Definitely young, definitely a girl. “Not answering is really rude, you know.”

 

“Sorry, I don’t negotiate with kidnappers.” Beau deadpanned, blowing a stray piece of hair out of her eyes. 

 

“Not even for your dumb fancy metal ring?” The voice said, from somewhere behind her. Wait, what?

 

“Dumb metal… do you mean the crown?” She couldn’t help but let confusion seep into her voice. Who didn’t know the crown of the lost princess? There was a goddamn massive mural of said lost princess wearing it in the middle of the city. 

 

There was a short hesitation, before the voice spoke again, a little more hurried. “Whatever it is, I’ve got it. And I’ve hidden it where you’ll never find it.” 

 

Beau took a quick glance around the room. Whoever this girl was, she was an amateur, that much was obvious. Managed to catch her by surprise and had a decent amount of strength, but seemingly not much beyond that.

 

“It’s in that jar, isn’t it?” She deadpanned. Usually not wise to give away things that your enemy didn’t know you knew. But sometimes she just couldn’t resist. 

 

There was a long silence, and Beau knew she’d hit right on the money. 

 

_ CLANG! _

 

When Beau woke up for a second time still attached to a chair, she decided to keep her knowledge to herself from that point forward. 

 

“Damn, you’re gonna give me brain damage if you keep that up.” She coughed, trying to get out of the strange ropes again. No dice. She twisted her neck around, seeing the bunches of threads snaked their way from the bottom of the chair she was tied to into the shadows, vanishing. What the hell…?

 

“Well,  _ now  _ the crown’s hidden where you’ll never find it!” The voice was indignant, and Beau just narrowly resisted the urge to roll her eyes. 

 

“Sure, whatever. What do you want?” Beau tried to sound as bored as possible, but her fingers were twitching, her voice hard. She could  _ not  _ lose that crown. 

 

“What do  _ you  _ want? Why did you come here?” The was a light shwing sound, and Beau was immediately aware of some kind of weapon pointed at her on her side. Craning her neck ever so slightly, she saw a frying pan of all fucking things. Not only that, but it had pink and purple swirls on the bottom. It looked like a godsdamned lollipop. A lollipop frying pan. 

 

Wow. Her day just kept getting better. 

 

“Uh, I was trying to get somewhere the guards crazy tracking teleporting dogs can’t get to? A giant tower in the middle of nowhere seemed like the best idea.” Beau frowned, squinting into the darkness to try and get a good look at the girl holding the frying pan. 

 

“So… you  _ didn’t  _ come here to like… steal my magic or kidnap me or…” The voice stumbled and Beau just scoffed.

 

“I didn’t even know there was anyone in here! And kidnapping people is way more trouble than it’s worth. Like stealing things is shitty, but stealing people is just  _ wrong _ .” Beau said.

 

“So you stole the crown?” 

 

“Uh, yeah  _ duh _ . Do I look like a member of the royal family to you?” This was starting to get very confusing and mildly irritating. “Do you ever leave this tower?” 

 

There was a short pause, and Beau’s eye twitched. Oh for gods sake. She finds one random tower protected by magic and of course it holds some weirdo who’s probably never set foot outside it in her life. 

 

“But… you don’t want to hurt me?”

 

Weirder and weirder by the second. “No! I mean, I’m a bit tempted now since you knocked me out twice, but I didn’t come up here with the intent of killing anyone inside or whatever!” 

 

Beau threw her head back dramatically, rolling her eyes. There was another silence, and a few light footsteps. One blue skinned foot stepped into the light, followed by another, the hem of a navy dress with a pink underskirt visible through slits in the overlayer. The girl stepped fully into the light, revealing herself to be rather short, a little shorter than Beau who was herself short, but she seemed to be about her age. 

 

She was a tiefling, with dark horns that curled in such a way they almost looked like neat buns on the side of her head. She wielded that lollipop frying pan in her hands, and her arms were noticeably muscular. Surprisingly muscular, considering how much of a wimp she’d sounded like before. Her face was smooth and soft, freckles dusting her cheeks and deep bluish-purple eyes that were locked directly on her.

 

But most strikingly was, of course, the hair. It was a brilliant silver, falling from her head in light waves but not stopping when it hit the ground. It continued to feed into the darkness, and now that Beau had somewhere to start from she could it in the shadows, looping around furniture and hanging from hooks that kept it out of the way. Holy  _ fuck _ . 

 

Wait, hang on. That was the same threads that tied Beau to this chair. She was tied to this chair by  _ hair?  _

 

Beau looked down at the hair wrapped tightly around her in disbelief, before looking back up at the tiefling. 

 

Okay, she was kinda cute. 

 

Beau blinked, startling herself out of her thoughts. Cute. She could work with that.

 

“Uh. Wow.” She cleared her throat, and the girl squinted down at her, still holding the frying pan tightly. “Well, I think we may be able to come to an agreement here.”

 

“I thought you didn’t negotiate with kidnappers.” The girl narrowed her eyes, pointing the frying pan at her. Oh yeah, she was definitely cute. 

 

“Well, I accidentally invaded your home, you intentionally knocked me unconscious twice, I’m willing to call it an even trade.” She forced her shoulders to release their tension, relaxing in her seat despite the hair binding her. “In fact, why don’t we start over?”

 

The girl raised an eyebrow, looking her up and down. “What do you mean?”

 

Beau’s smile widened into her most charming smolder, and she flicked her head back again, which would’ve had more effect if her hair was actually out, but it was the in the spirit of things. “Hey. I’m Dairon.” 

 

The girl’s eyebrow raised even higher, but her frying pan lowered slightly, and the corner of her mouth quirked upwards. After a few moments of silence, she snickered, covering her mouth with her hand. 

 

“I’m Jester.” The girl said, still covering her mouth and glancing away, tucking hair behind her ear with her free hand.

 

“Wonderful. Now we know each other. What do you want in exchange for that crown?” Beau began looking around the room again, scanning for possible hiding places.

 

Jester frowned for a few moments, before standing up straight, tucking the frying pan under her arm. “I would like you to take me somewhere.”

 

There was a beat.

 

“I’m flattered, but I prefer my dates to start with me not being tied to something.” Beau said flatly. “Now ending them that way is a different story-” 

 

“I didn’t mean like  _ that _ !” Jester rolled her eyes, not even a hint of colour to her cheeks. So she wasn’t flustered by things like that. Perhaps she wasn’t as innocent as she initially appeared. “I meant escorting me to somewhere, as a tour guide.”

 

“A tour guide? Where the hell do you wanna go that needs a tour guide?” Beau sank back into her chair, becoming less and less enthused by the minute. 

 

Jester shot her a pointed look, before beginning to walk around the chair, seemingly out of nerves or just an excess of energy. Her ridiculously long hair followed her, and yeah, Beau could believe she’d never left this tower because there was no way in the Nine Hells that could remain clean otherwise. 

 

And Beau thought her hairstyle was a pain to maintain. 

 

“I would like to go see the lights.” Jester finally said, her voice a little tense. 

 

“The lights?” This was the strangest interrogation Beau could remember. 

 

“That lights. They always happen every year, at night on my birthday. They’re big and silver and so pretty, and I’ve always wanted to see them and they’ll be there tomorrow night.” Jester had circled back around to the front of the chair by now, and there was a faraway look in her eyes, her hands clasped together and pulled to her chest. 

 

“You… you mean the lantern festival?” Beau asked, bewildered. “You don’t know what that is? Who raised you?”

 

“My father did, and he’s very good at it.” Jester folded her arms, looking down at Beau with a pout. “And he doesn’t know what they are either, he thinks they’re stars.” 

 

“Stars don’t move.” Beau deadpanned, and Jester pointed at her, her face lighting up.

 

“Exactly! I’ve always wanted to find out what they really are, but Father says it’s unsafe for me so I stay in here but-”

 

“Wait, you’re not alone in here? Your dad keeps you locked up in here?” Beau felt herself get a little tenser. “Where is he?”

 

Jester took half a step back. “He doesn’t lock me up. It’s just dangerous for me outside.”

 

“But you’re not allowed to leave?”

 

“... No.”

 

“So you’re locked up.” Beau grumbled and sank back into the chair again, the gears in her head turning. She looked around her and then she looked back at Jester, weighing up her pride versus her need to get that crown back. 

 

She sighed, hoping she wouldn’t regret this. “So you want me to be a tour guide… to go see the lantern festival?”

 

Jester perked up, an adorable smile blooming on her face. “Yes! You take me to see the floating lights, and then take me back here safe and sound, and then I’ll give you your crown back.”

 

“You want to come back?” Beau asked, arching her eyebrows. 

 

“Of course. This is my home.” Jester’s eyes were wide and genuine, and Beau couldn’t find even a hint of resentment in them. 

 

It didn’t settle right with her, in a way she couldn’t describe, but she didn’t have the time to worry about other people’s lives. If this girl wanted to stay locked in a tower all her life bar one day and was happy about it, more fool her. Beau needed her crown back, and she needed it now.

 

“I think you’ve got yourself a deal, Jester.” Beau smiled. “I’d shake your hand, but you tied me up.”

 

“Really?” Jester bounced on her toes before hastily straightening up, clearing her throat and failing to put on a serious expression. “I mean, good. But if there’s any funny business, I’ll knock you out again.”

 

The back of Beau’s head throbbed as if to remind her she didn’t want that to happen again, and she nodded. At this point, it was easier to just play along. 

 

“No problem.” She gave Jester a wry smile. “But we’d better get moving. The festivals all the way on the other side of the island.”

 

There was a soft gasp. “We’re on an  _ island?”  _

 

Oh gods help her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i start uni on wednesday, sad reacts only. Luckily I've got a pretty good buffer for this fic so it shouldn't affect anything.


	5. Chapter 5

She was gonna do it. She was gonna do it.

 

Jester perched on the windowsill, the sunlight beaming down on her face, her hair already looped around a hook to make it easier for her to get down. All she had to do… was leap.

 

She couldn’t do it. 

 

“What are you waiting for?” Dairon called out, halfway down the tower. She was a very good climber indeed, and now Jester could see her arm muscles tensing as she climbed, her tunics sleeves seemingly having been cut or torn off by something long ago. Jester hadn’t even known girls could get muscles like that. 

 

No, don’t get distracted. She could do this. She’d come this far, she was going to see those lights. “Just- give me a sec!”

 

She stepped down from the windowsill, pacing in a circle for a few moments and wringing her hands together before going and picking up her frying pan and tucking it under her arm. Then, she went to the table where Sprinkle liked to nap and scooped him up, ignoring the indignant squeaks that resulted. 

 

“Cmon Sprinkle, we’re gonna have an adventure.” Jester spoke more for herself than Sprinkle, carefully wrapping the weasel around her neck before going back to the windowsill. Dairon had climbed even further down, looking back up every now and then. 

 

Jester took a deep breath, looking back over her shoulder at the tower, her whole world for the past eighteen years. Father would be so mad if he came back and she was gone. Mad and worried and horrified. 

 

She looked back at all the paintings that lined the walls, stretching to the ceiling, dotting every piece of cobblestone and wooden panel. There was hardly space to spare, it was just so full. Too full. It was time to see something new. 

 

“If you chicken out I expect to get my crown back!” Dairon shouted up, very close to the bottom by now, grunting as she climbed. 

 

Jester took one final breath, looking up at the bright blue sky in front of her, the whole  _ world  _ she had to explore. No time for hesitation anymore. 

 

And she leapt. 

 

She heard rather than saw when she passed Dairon, from the shriek of absolute horror that followed her, but Jester had lifted Father up enough times to know how much hair it took to reach the bottom, and she’d measured it correctly, dropping to a stop just above the ground.

 

Gingerly, she set a toe on the grass. It was soft and dewey, and completely unlike anything Jester had ever experienced. 

 

“What the  _ fuck  _ was that?” 

 

Jester looked up at Dairon and beamed, putting both feet on the ground and pulling the rest of her hair down so it fell to the earth. She then promptly dropped to the ground, digging her hands and fingers into the dirt, giggles bubbling up into her throat. She’d done it, she’d done it! 

 

“Give a girl some warning next time!” Dairon dropped to the bottom of the tower, scowling and tucking two very blunt daggers into her pocket. 

 

“What did you think I was going to do?” Jester asked, grinning up at her new companion. Her very shady companion, but her new companion nevertheless. She’d never had one of those before. With that happy thought, she turned back to her exploration of grass and dirt and flowers that weren’t pictures in a book or already picked by Father, rolling over and marvelling at the new sensations. Even the air felt different outside. 

 

“Lower yourself down slowly? Not leap off like a lunatic?” Dairon deadpanned. “Alright, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover if we want to get somewhere half-decent by nighttime.” 

 

Jester ignored her, rolling over and over and giggling, while Sprinkle scrambled all over her to stop from getting squashed. When Jester stopped, resting on her back and opening her eyes, she saw Dairon leaning over her slightly, a bit of the sourness on her face giving way to bemusement.

 

“You really haven’t been outside before, have you.” 

 

“I told you, didn’t I! I’m not a liar.” Jester scoffed, finally sitting up.

 

“Your hair is all dirty now.”

 

Jester shrugged. It was  _ outside  _ dirt, which meant it was awesome. “It’s so amazing out here!”

 

Dairon looked around with a critical eye, as if trying to assess what Jester found so incredible. Then she looked back at her, folding her arms. 

 

“I mean, you can just stay here and play in the dirt for two days or whatever if you want.” She rolled her eyes, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “Definitely won’t run into any murderers trying to steal your magic or whatever your father is so afraid of.” 

 

Jester sat up, frowning. “He just wants to keep me safe.”

 

“Yeah, by never letting you out.” Darion huffed, before striding past her. “But if you enjoy being locked up, that’s your problem. Are we going or not?” 

 

Jester hmmed an affirmative, picking herself up from the ground and following after Dairon, brushing some dirt off her dress as she did, jogging to catch up to Dairon. “Do you watch the lanterns every year?”

 

Dairon glanced her way with a raised eyebrow, before looking straight ahead again. “Yeah. The Lantern Festival is one of the most important festivals in the kingdom, and the lanterns are pretty hard to miss.”

 

“Do you know where they come from?” Jester asked, just now realising that there was a sudden wealth of knowledge at her fingertips. 

 

“Some people make them and then people can buy them.” 

 

“Oh.” That… was a fairly mundane explanation. Jester wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but to hear such a simple reason was… not disheartening, but it felt slightly detached to the wonder of it all that had built up in her mind. Of course, she still wanted to see them up close. “Why do they do it?”

 

“Technically it’s for the lost princess. And the king.” Dairon shrugged. “To light their way back home or whatever. I guess your father doesn’t know about that either, since he didn’t know what the lanterns were.” 

 

Jester shook her head. “I didn’t know there was a whole kingdom out here. How did the princess and king become lost?”

 

“Queen got sick, King went out searching for a cure and never returned, in the meantime Queen had a baby, and the baby got kidnapped. Probably both dead by now, but we have the whole festival anyway.” Dairon spoke with an air of indifference, picking at her nails with her fingers.

 

“Oh, that’s so sad.” Jester said. “What about the Queen?” 

 

“She got better, but hardly anyone sees her anymore. Apparently she never went out much before anyway, but now she’s basically a recluse who also runs a kingdom. Who knows though, I was an infant when the whole thing went down.” 

 

Jester watched her feet as they walked for a while longer, ruminating on that sad story. She never knew her mother, and Father didn’t like talking about her. But she knew that if she got sick, Father would travel all the way to the ends of the world if he had to to try and cure her. What if he never came back from his travels one day? 

 

A twinge of guilt stabbed at her heart, thinking of how scared Father might be if he got home before she did. Who knows what he might think could’ve happened to her. But she was out here now, and she couldn’t go back. 

 

A sudden thought hit her, and she looked towards Dairon. “Hang on, did you steal your crown from the Queen?” 

 

“What?” Dairon looked at her, bewildered.

 

Jester gasped. “You did, didn’t you! That’s so mean! She lost her family!”

 

“Woah, hold on!” Dairon stopped walking, holding her hands up. “Hold on. First of all, it happened  _ years  _ ago. People move on. Second of all, it’s not  _ her  _ crown so technically I didn’t steal from  _ her _ . Third of all, I need the money. Fourth of all, you’re still going to give it back me, right? Because if you don’t I’m not taking you anywhere.”

 

Jester blinked, processing all of that in a few seconds. The first and second points she filed away before disregarding because okay that was at least some kind of logic. 

 

“Well… I made a promise so… yeah I’ll still give it back to you.” She said. “But why do you need the money? I don’t need money.”

 

“You have your father, he probably pays for everything.” Dairon said. 

 

“Actually he doesn’t have money either. He goes out and finds food for us and everything else we need.” Jester said. 

 

“Congratulations.” Dairon started walking again, her shoulders a little stiffer and her arms folded again. “But the rest of society uses money.” 

 

“Okay…” Jester followed Dairon again, feeling a little uncertain. She supposed it could’ve been worse. Royalty  _ was  _ very rich, so perhaps they had more than one crown. And if Dairon really, really needed the money, then that was… less bad… 

 

Still, something about the whole business and the story didn’t sit right with her, so Jester shook her head, shoving it to the back of her mind and focusing on more exciting things. Her stomach felt like it was doing flips, pulling her in every which direction. 

 

As they walked Jester stared at every single new thing she saw, which was just about everything. She’d been able to catch glimpses of the forest from the window, but actually walking through it was another experience entirely, and it was  _ amazing _ . 

 

There were trees and leaves and small animals that would scurry away as soon as they got close, and Dairon led her on strange paths and over rocks and through creeks. Jester had to hold most of her hair to stop it from getting wet when they did that, but it was fun. The water was clear and cool, and Jester only slipped three times, prompting Dairon to mutter about getting some shoes. And to stop splashing in the water. 

 

After a very short time of silence, Jester tried to keep things light, chattering happily to Dairon about the first time she remembered seeing the lights, or lanterns as they apparently were. How beautiful they had been, how excited she’d been to see them, how she’d been upset when they hadn’t reappeared the following night. The next year when she saw them again, she started to catch on. 

 

Dairon didn’t offer up any stories of her own from her childhood, deflecting any questions about it with vague non-answers or just ignoring it all together by pointing another question back at Jester, who just found Dairon all the more curious every time she did it. Dairon was mysterious and strange and, okay, a criminal, but she didn’t seem evil like all the stories Father had told her made criminals out to be. 

 

A little surly and selfish maybe, but still! Sprinkle was very grumpy sometimes but Jester still loved him. He used to be even grumpier when he’d first climbed up to her tower, so maybe Dairon was the same. Jester didn’t want her to be grumpy through this whole trip.

 

Still, even with how Dairon seemed intent on not telling Jester anything at all, she managed to wheedle  _ some  _ fun information from her. Like how she liked to get into fist fights, how she’d managed to never get arrested thanks to a freaky level of knowledge about how the guards worked (which she refused to elaborate on), and how she slept outside most of the time, like she was on a neverending camping trip. Her favourite food was bacon, and her favourite colour was blue, and she wasn’t very good at painting but she did like pranks. 

 

Jester was in the middle of listing her favourite pranks she’d ever played on her father when they broke from the thick forest onto a well-travelled dirt road. 

 

“Ah. I knew we were getting close.” Dairon puffed out her chest, looking up and down the road before her face lit up. “Even closer than I thought!” 

 

Jester followed her gaze before landing on an old, weathered sign on the side of the road. It had a picture of a night sky that had the paint chipping and peeling away, with the words ‘The Evening Nip’. Behind the sign, further along the path, was a clearing amongst the trees in which a building stood, old and wooden with a thatched roof and smoke billowing gently from a chimney. Horses and carts were tied up outside, and from inside dirty windows Jester could see shadows of people moving. 

 

Exhilaration and a mild anxiety bubbled up inside her all at once. People. There were so many people in there. Probably more people than she’d ever met at once! Granted, that number was one, but still. 

 

“What’s that?” She whispered to Dairon, holding her hands to her chest.

 

“That is the Evening Nip. One of the best taverns in the land. I figured the city would be pretty overwhelming, so perhaps a smaller introduction to normal people would be in order.” Dairon clapped her on the back, a wry smile on her face. 

 

“A tavern? That sounds fun!” Jester said. “There’s food and drink there, right?”

 

“Oh sure.” Dairon nodded, not meeting her eye. “It’s actually pretty good, considering.”

 

“Considering what?” 

 

“Considering it’s a tavern in the middle of nowhere.” Dairon clapped her on the back again, pushing her forwards. “No time like the present, let’s go!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh boi here we go


	6. Chapter 6

Beau’s plan was very simple. She wanted that crown back as quickly as possible. Jester had left it in its hiding place back in the tower (a hiding place Beau had been unable to find in the brief moments Jester turned her back on her) which meant Beau had to get back to that tower as quickly as possible.

 

So she figured the easiest way to do that was to convince Jester that the world was a terrible, horrible place, and it was best to turn around immediately and break off the deal. Give her the crown and they’d never see each other again. Jester could go back and live in her gilded cage that she loved so much, and Beau could get out of this kingdom and pretend it didn’t exist.

 

If her plan didn’t work, she figured she’d just take Jester to see the lights or whatever and then take her home like the original deal. But it would be so much easier if that deal ended before they got anywhere close to the actual city, so she was prepared to put in the effort to scare her off. 

 

Hence, the Evening Nip. It had been a while since Beau had been there, so hopefully it was long enough for them to forget the multiple brawls she’d started. 

 

“It sounds kinda loud.” Jester said, bundling up her hair in preparation for entering to avoid it getting trod on. 

 

“That’s the sound of happiness.” Beau said, pushing open the door and gently nudging Jester inside ahead of her.

 

It was relatively full for midday, loud and rowdy with barely a seat empty at the bar. Tables were scattered and there was a fast-paced song being played on a piano that was ever-so-slightly out of tune. The scent of alcohol and body odour filled the air, and dirty windows meant that any light that made it through was tinted in a grimy light, only accentuated by the candles and lanterns that hung in odd positions. 

 

A few dozen heads turned towards them as Jester and Beau walked in, all belonging to people that were either tall, beefy, well-armoured, holding at least one weapon, or some combination of the four. Jester made a light ‘eep’, pulling out her frying pan and holding it up, still bundling her hair with the other. 

 

The thugs all looked at Jester first, because it was impossible not to. Her hair shimmered in the light and with her bare feet, simple pink and purple dress that  _ wasn’t _ torn or stained in any noticeable way and lack of scars, she stood out in quite a few ways. 

 

“Well hello there.” A silky smooth voice pierced the silence that had settled after the door opened. Beau inwardly cursed. She’d really hoped  _ he  _ wouldn’t be there, but had decided to take the risk anyway. “Haven’t seen you around here before.” 

 

The purple tiefling that was the current bane of Beau’s existence — of which there were many — pushed past the crowd to stop in front of the  _ other  _ current bane of Beau’s existence, an irritatingly coy smirk on his face.

 

“Uh, hi.” Jester said, not as terrified as Beau had hoped. Great. Scratch that plan off the list. “I’m Jester.”

 

“Mollymauk Tealeaf, at your service. Molly to my friends.” 

 

Jester giggled and Beau couldn’t resist rolling her eyes and scoffing, drawing the attention of the tiefling. 

 

“Dairon.” Molly’s eyes sparkled with mischief and opportunity, and Beau was very familiar with it. “Bold of you to come by here.” 

 

As if just saying her name was enough to draw everyone’s attention from Jester, Beau felt dozens of eyes on her. Oh right, she had a huge fucking bounty on her head, didn’t she. Still, just about everyone in here was a criminal of some flavour or another, so usually bounties were ignored within these walls. Usually.

 

“Mollymauk.” Dairon spoke through gritted teeth. “You’re not enough of an asshole to bring the guards here, aren’t you? Is no place sacred?”

 

“Oh no,  _ I _ won’t get the guards.” Molly’s grin widened.

 

“Marius will though.” Someone else spoke from behind them, and Beau pivoted on her heel to see the back of a scrawny underling of some gang racing off into the forest. 

 

“Godsdamnit.” Beau mimed pushing up sleeves that she didn’t actually have, stepping towards the door and preparing to race after him. She was not getting arrested today, thanks. 

 

The door slammed in her face, and Beau looked up to see the tall, buff and unfortunately hot best friend of Molly’s, Yasha. It was unfortunate because Yasha spent all her time with Molly, and Molly hated Beau. Usually that didn’t stop her, but right now she was preoccupied.

 

“Et tu, Yasha?” Beau held a hand to her chest. “Did that night in the valley mean nothing?”

 

Yasha smirked ever so slightly. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” 

 

“Ooooh, are you two dating?” Jester asked, far too gleeful and nowhere near frightened enough even though their exit had just been blocked. Yup, it was safe to say this plan was a failure. It seemed one taste of the outside world was enough for Jester to forget about all her fears forever. 

 

“It was a thing for like three minutes.” 

 

“I’ve never met this woman in my life.” 

 

Beau stared blankly up at Yasha. She didn’t know what she expected. 

 

“This is a great reunion but where’s the crown?” Another voice, shrill and high-pitched pierced the low muttering that had started up again amongst many of the bar’s patrons, watching and waiting to see what happened, feeling quite comfortable that even if the guards showed up, Beau would be far more interesting to them than the rest of them. 

 

A goblin pushed through the crowd to reach the space that Beau, Jester, Yasha and Molly currently occupied, hands on her hips. Great. Nott the gremlin was here. Which meant Caleb was here (probably hiding in a corner and watching everything unfold) which probably meant fucking everyone Beau had ever crossed paths with was here too. Why not. 

 

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Beau folded her arms, tapping her foot impatiently. Fuck this, they had to get out of here before the guards arrived. 

 

“Actually, I  _ would _ .” Nott narrowed her eyes up at her. “We heard what you stole.”

 

“Working with the Shepherd Brothers is one thing, but stealing the crown of the lost princess? That’s low, even for you, Dairon.” Molly said. “And you’ve what, kidnapped some poor girl?”

 

“She didn’t kidnap me! She’s escorting me.” Jester jumped in, and Beau couldn’t believe she was grateful for it. She was pretty sure she was going to die of exasperation before the guards got their hands on her. 

 

Molly raised an eyebrow, turning his attention back to Jester. “Escorting you? You are aware that Dairon is currently the most wanted criminal in the kingdom?”

 

Jester blanched, looking back at Beau, who just made a vague non-committal sound. Okay… maybe that was an important detail, but she’d kinda figured Jester would have figured it out from the whole ‘oh I stole a crown from the royal family’ thing. 

 

“Well-even so, she promised to take me, and we have a deal.” Jester folded her arms, looking surprisingly defiant. Now it was Beau’s turn to look at Jester, surprised. “If that’s alright with you.”

 

Molly’s eyes widened slightly, his grin twitching with amusement. He looked between Beau and Jester a few times. He chuckled, and Beau just knew that if she survived the next few days, she’d never hear the end of this. She’d just have to avoid Molly for the rest of her life. Which would be easy once she got the crown back. 

 

“I see.” Molly’s voice was dripping with barely restrained glee. “And where is Dairon escorting you to?”

 

“To see the floating lights.” Jester said, before frowning. “The, uh, lantern festival.”

 

“Oh, that’s completely understandable.” Molly waved a hand. “It’s very beautiful, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”

 

Jester perked up. “Really? I’ve always seen it from a distance, but is it even prettier up close?” 

 

“It’s magnificent.” Molly beamed. 

 

Nott loudly cleared her throat, having snuck next to Beau. “The  _ crown _ though.” 

 

“The crowns back at her house.” Beau pointed at Jester. “So don’t even think about it.” 

 

“Whaaaaaaat-” Nott drawled, scowling and withdrawing her hands from where they’d been reaching towards Beau’s pockets. “I am shocked and appalled that you would ever  _ consider  _ that I-”

 

Beau rolled her eyes and walked away, putting an arm around Jester’s shoulders. “Okay, this has been wonderful, but it’s time we get going. I’ve got to get all the way to the city by tomorrow night-”

 

“That isn’t really that far.” Yasha said, either ignoring or completely oblivious of the betrayal that was. Way to cut down her excuse that everyone already knew was total bullshit. 

 

“Oh yes. If you were in such a hurry, why’d you stop by to begin with?” Molly, on the other hand, knew  _ exactly  _ what he was doing, and he was enjoying every damn second of it. He sidled up to the other side of Jester, who seemed slightly overwhelmed by everything but still with a giddy smile on her face. “Sit down, have a drink.”

 

Beau scowled as Molly pushed her arm away, gently leading Jester further into the tavern. She followed the pair, hunching her shoulders while some of the others snickered, taking enjoyment at her irritation. What a shitty idea this had been. 

 

In a matter of minutes Molly had half a dozen drinks set out in front of Jester to try, all of which were soundly rejected after a single sip (Jester was eager to try everything, but her tastes were odd, it seemed) until the bartender set out a simple mug of milk, which was accepted. 

 

In between drink-tasting Molly and Jester kept up a steady stream of chatter that was listened to by just about everyone else in the bar, because this was the most interesting thing that had happened in a while. They all seemed to love it, and Jester was ridiculously endearing.

 

Beau sat sullenly close by, fending off Nott’s sticky fingers and staring into the bottom of her own mug to avoid making eye contact with anyone else.  

 

“So when was the last time you cut your hair, because it is incredible!” Molly was halfway through a ridiculous spiel about how amazing Jester’s hair was (and yeah, it  _ was  _ cool but also insanely impractical) which Jester of course seemed to think was the best thing ever.

 

Then again, Beau was pretty sure you could show Jester a new book and she’d be all over it. She was adorable like that. 

 

“Actually I’ve never cut it.” Jester said, grinning all the way to her eyes. Molly gasped and held a hand to his chest like this was far more dramatic or shocking than it actually was. “It takes  _ hours  _ to brush.”

 

“My goodness, you have dedication.” Molly said. Jester giggles and Beau dropped her face onto the bar, barely holding back a groan. She was going to die. This was actually going to kill her. “I’m amazed I’ve never seen someone like you walking around.” 

 

“I don’t really get out much.” Jester said, looking over her shoulder and winking at Beau, who just gave a bleary thumbs up in response. Her cheeks were starting to heat up, how much had she drunk so far?

 

Molly followed her gaze, looking delighted at how exasperated Beau looked. “Then how did you manage to run into the most obnoxious person in the kingdom?” 

 

“I’m sure there are more obnoxious somewhere.” Yasha leaned in from where she was sitting before leaning back and chugging her mug. 

 

“Doubt it.” Molly shrugged his shoulders.

 

“Oh no, Dairon’s been really nice! I mean, she brought me over here to meet you guys and you’re all really nice too.” Jester said. “And she told me all about the festival, and her favourite colour-”

 

“That’s more than she’s ever told me!” Molly sounded almost genuinely affronted. ‘Dairon! I had no idea you hated me so much!”

 

“Really? I haven’t been trying to hide it.” Beau sat up straight, plastering a pleasant smile on her face. 

 

Jester looked back and forth between them like she was trying to figure out what was going on between them. After a few moments, she whispered just loud enough for both of them to hear. “Are  _ you  _ two dating?”

 

Both Beau and Molly sputtered and wheezed, each in a competition to deny it faster than the other.

 

“Fuck  _ no!” _

 

“I would date every other consenting adult on this planet before I would even consider thinking about potentially dating Dairon.” 

 

“Asshole.”

 

“Obnoxious.”

 

Molly leaned in a bit closer to Jester. “Besides, Dairon’s tastes are far closer to women that could knock her out in one punch than me, I’m afraid. It’ll get her killed someday.”

 

Jester nodded slowly, a mischievous smile slowly spreading on her face, while Beau flipped Molly off with both hands and simultaneously chugged what was left of her drink. It was a talent. “Oooooooh, okay.”

 

“In any case, I am curious as to why you need Dairon to escort you to see the lantern festival. Or how you got someone as selfish as her to agree.” Molly leaned forward with his fingers interlocking and his eyebrows waggling, his grin never wavering. 

 

“Wellllll-” Jester drew out the word for as long as possible. “I’ve always wanted to see the floating lights up close, but I was never allowed outside. So when Dairon came along andafterIknockedherouttwice we made a deal for her to take me!” 

 

Beau silently wished for the gods to strike her down where she sat, while Molly’s face became the picture of absolute, unrestrained,  _ evil  _ glee. A round of cackles and laughter echoed throughout the tavern, that tidbit of information spreading unfortunately fast. 

 

Four years of trying to build a criminal reputation, and now it was all undone. Beau just knew that she would forever be known as the girl who got knocked out twice by a tiefling in a frilly dress that didn’t wear shoes. Godsdamnit it. 

 

“You mean to say that you… a tiny girl with hair so long you can trip over it fifty times, knocked out Dairon, self-proclaimed martial arts extraordinaire?  _ Twice?! _ ” Beau had never heard Molly’s voice so ridiculously happy. She accepted a refill from the bartender, a tall half-orc named Fjord who was probably the one person in this tavern who regularly tolerated Beau’s presence, trying to ignore the jeers from the other patrons. 

 

“On the house, Dairon.” Fjord reached out and patted her on the shoulder, but even he seemed mildly amused by this entire conversation. “Seems like you’ve had a long day.”

 

“Hopefully I’ve got a concussion and I’ll forget all of this by tomorrow.” Beau muttered. “Thanks.” 

 

“Oh Jester, I think you just became my favourite person. Sorry Yasha, you’ve been replaced!” Molly slapped Yasha’s arm in between cackling like an evil supervillain who’d just been told a thousand puppies had been murdered. She’d never seen Molly murder a puppy, but she wouldn’t be surprised if it was something he did. 

 

“Unacceptable. Jester, we shall duel at dawn.” Yasha was smiling, and some of that was even slipping into her voice, and Beau couldn’t help but feel pissed off that that happiness was at her expense. There were a few reasons she didn’t hang out in the Evening Nip a lot, and Mollymauk and Yasha were most of them. Mollymauk because he was a fucking prick, and Yasha because she was so amazing except for the one irredeemable flaw of being best friends with Molly. 

 

“Aw, why don’t you like Dairon?” Jester’s voice had a twinge of discomfort in it. “I mean yeah, she was like,  _ kinda  _ rude when we first met, but I also had her tied to a chair so-”

 

If there was anything Jester could’ve said to make Molly laugh even harder, that was apparently it. 

 

“A  _ chair!?  _ Oh my gods, this is the best day of my life!” 

 

“Come onnnnnn-” Jester continued. “Why don’t you like her?” Beau decided not to question whether Jester was aware that Beau was sitting right behind her or not, because she actually wanted to hear the answer.

 

“That, my dear, is a very complicated answer, but the short version is that Dairon is extremely obnoxious. Hmm. Actually, that wasn’t complicated at all.” 

 

“That doesn’t sound… that bad.” 

 

“Yeah, I’d say you have three more hours of being around her before it gets to you. I’m shocked you’ve gone as long as you have without wanting to stab her.” 

 

Beau scowled, either too drunk or too annoyed to pretend she wasn’t listening. Or both. “I’m shocked she’s lasted a whole conversation without strangling you yet.”

 

“I don’t want to hurt either of you.” Jester said, frowning slightly. “Or anyone else.”

 

“Then you’re nobler than us all.” Molly said lightly, making direct eye contact with Beau. “Far too noble to be hanging around the likes of us.” 

 

“What will you do after you visit the festival?” Yasha ducked in, squeezing herself into a seat between Beau and Jester, which left her ridiculously close to the both of them. Jester’s face lit up, while Beau’s flushed and she leant backward, burying her face in her mug. 

 

“Oh, I’m just going to go back home so I can celebrate my birthday with my dad.” Jester said brightly. Beau cringed into her seat but said nothing, mostly because she was trying to murder half the people in the bar just by glaring at them. 

 

“Aw, that’s adorable!” Molly said. “You know, we could always escort you. It’ll probably have a lesser likelihood of getting arrested and slash or executed.” 

 

Beau barely resisted slamming her head onto the bar. Of course. Of course Molly would be able to waltz in and steal her new friend and probably her crown too-

 

“No, I made a deal with Dairon, so I’m not going to break that.” Beau’s eyebrows shot up, and she looked at Jester, who was smiling reassuringly at Molly. Second time in a row Jester had declared she wouldn’t break her promise. That was new. “I really appreciate the offer though!” 

 

“Well, it’s your life.” Molly shrugged, shooting a pointed glance at Beau that she couldn’t even begin to decipher. “I’m sure you’re able to make your own-”

 

There was a slamming sound that immediately cut through any lingering chatter, the front door being thrown open and hitting the wall with a twack.

 

In the doorway stood Marius, sweaty but grinning triumphantly. 

 

“I found the guards!” He shouted, pointing behind him to somewhere outside, and Beau suddenly realised that some clatter and clanging that she’d written down to typical tavern noise was actually the sound of armour clanking together. Beau choked on her drink, spitting it out back into the mug, her nose and throat burning. 

 

Dozens of eyes flew to her and Jester and everyone surrounding them, frozen. They’d all been so enraptured in Jester’s stories and excited conversation with Molly, they’d completely forgotten about Marius leaving at all.

 

Jester looked at Beau, hints of fear in her eyes. Even Molly’s smile had faltered. 

 

He turned to look at them, more at Jester than Beau. “Well. Since you intend to following through with your deal, let’s see how we can stop both of you from getting arrested, shall we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> molly stop being so fun to write you're killing me here  
> also fjord is the bartender cause i say so, and caleb is sitting in a corner reading a book. Caduceus is not in the bar


	7. Chapter 7

“Fuck you Marius!” Dairon shouted, before there was a sudden din within the tavern as everyone reacted to the fact that guards were now outside. Somehow they’d all forgotten that Marius had disappeared to get them (more a testament to how lowly a twerp Marius was, and how interesting they’d all found Jester than anything else) and now it was a bit chaotic. 

 

Jester’s head spun, her mouth dropping open as she slid off her chair, hugging her bundles of hair to her chest. Guards? Yeah, she’d been told how Dairon was a criminal and had stolen something very important to the royal family, but somehow there was a disconnect between that knowledge and the logical conclusion that  _ guards would be after her, and thus Jester as well _ . 

 

“You two have to get out of here.” Yasha stepped up, her voice solemn. 

 

“The guards will be surrounding the outside, to get every window before they storm in.” Dairon’s face was pinched, her gaze flickering between Jester and Molly and the windows and everyone else in the tavern, most of whom seemed torn on what to do. 

 

“Which means we’ve got maybe thirty seconds.” Molly frowned lightly.

 

“They’ve got the Shepherd brothers with them!” Someone called out from the windows, sending another round of alarmed mutters through the tavern, and another round of curses of Dairon. 

 

“Over here-” The bartender leaned over the counter and whispered to them, catching their attention before pulling down a lever behind the counter. There was a creaking sound, before the lid to one of the barrels that were pushed up against the wall slid open, revealing a dark passageway.

 

“Fjord!” Dairon’s mouth dropped open. “You’ve been holdin out on me!”

 

The bartender, Fjord, smirked. “A guy’s gotta have his secrets.”

 

Dairon opened her mouth to respond, but Yasha walked up to her and punted her over the counter where she landed with a thud and a series of shockingly creative curses. At the same time, Molly offered Jester a hand, and he and Fjord helped her climb over while she held onto her hair and frying pan.

 

“You’re sure you want to go with her?” Molly asked as she got to the other side. “If you stick with us I doubt the guards will give you a second look.”

 

Jester bit her lip, glancing towards Dairon, who was already halfway into the secret passage. They met eyes, and Dairon quickly tore her gaze away. Molly was probably right. The guards didn’t know Jester was with Dairon, or that she knew where the crown was. If she stayed, the guards would go after Dairon and she’d be perfectly fine. Molly had even said he wouldn’t mind taking her to see the lights.

 

But she’d made a deal, and she’d never broken a deal in her life. Plus, this was kind of exciting. Like a chase from one of Father’s stories, where Dairon was the handsome rogue on the run from the law, while Jester was her beautiful and smart partner in crime. Of course, in those stories the rogue was usually a boy, and he and his partner in crime usually ended up kissing, but it still kinda fit. 

 

So she just smiled, holding her frying pan as best she could while her arms were full of hair, and climbing into the secret passageway. “I’ll be okay. It was nice meeting you all!”

 

Molly grinned a long, satisfied grin and saluted her, while Fjord wished them both luck before closing the false barrel lid. In the moments before it closed completely, Jester caught a glimpse of Yasha taking hold of the lever Fjord had used to open it and snapping it off like a twig. 

 

Jester felt fingers intertwining with hers, and looked ahead of her to see Dairon standing there, biting her lips and bouncing on the heels of her feet.

 

“Come on, we need to go!” She called out, tugging Jester forward and beginning to run.

 

The secret tunnel they found themselves in was sparse and dark, lit only by the occasional torch. There was a smell of dirty water in the air and the ground was damp and gritty between Jester’s toes, but she didn’t have time to worry about it as she ran, faster than she’d ever had to run in her entire life. 

 

Their footsteps echoed in the cavern and their breaths sounded a hundred times louder than they actually were, the cramped space giving every sound an eerie, haunting quality to them. Jester’s heart was beating like it might jump out of her chest, and she couldn’t help but grin wildly.

 

She was in a chase! She was in an actual, real life chase! She was being hunted down by guards whomightkillherohgods but also this was just like the stories she’d read! She’d never experienced anything like this, it was almost overwhelming. 

 

Ahead of her, holding her hand and dragging her along faster than Jester had thought possible, Dairon seemed far more serious, her breaths short and even like she knew exactly what she was doing, like she’d done this a hundred times before. 

 

A cracking sound echoed from far behind them and Jester felt a shiver down her spine, as shouts and barks thundered behind them. Oh gods oh gods oh gods-

 

“Fuckfuckfuckfuck-” Dairon cursed inbetween breaths, craning her head over her shoulder for a split second. They met each others eyes, Jester still grinning like a doofus, adrenaline pumping through her. 

 

Seeing her smile, Dairon’s mouth quirked up in a half-smile before she turned back, pulling her along just a little faster. “Don’t worry! I outrun these guys like fifty times a week!” She called out.

 

A nervous and giddy giggle escaped from Jester, but the shouts and yelps from behind her were getting louder and denser, and her heart clenched in fear. 

 

The dim light around them slowly got brighter, so subtly that Jester didn’t even notice until they rounded a corner and saw a bright light, blinding their eyes. But they didn’t stop, couldn’t stop for even a moment, racing into the light.

 

For a moment all Jester could see was white, feeling the heat of the sun beating down on her like it never had before. She heard Dairon yelp, skidding to a stop in front of her. Jester just managed to stop before she plowed into her and knocked both of them to the ground, blinking frantically to try and get her eyes to adjust quicker. 

 

When her vision cleared up, she found them standing about halfway up what seemed to be some kind of canyon, dam or gorge. Cracked wooden support beams stretched up to the top, while the wall from which Jester and Dairon had emerged from was completely covered in wooden beams, stretching from one side of the gorge to another, tiny drips of water occasionally dropping from gaps. 

 

They entered from the tunnel just to the side of that wall, onto a stone platform that stretched out for only another twenty feet or so in front of the exit before dropping off. Dairon and Jester’s feet had carried them about ten feet out before they’d stopped, and now they tenderly approached the edge, seeing how high the drop was.

 

It was high. It was very high. 

 

Dairon stared down at the ledge like she was trying to figure out how to climb down it, while Jester looked up and around. The wooden support beams around the gorge were mostly built into the side of the gorge, but long beams also bridged the gorge, probably just to add extra support. The closest one was still pretty far away, but not so far that she wouldn’t be able to reach it. Probably. Hopefully.

 

They’d soon find out. 

 

“Halt!” Jester froze, pivoting around to see men and women in full armour streaming out of the tunnel, swords drawn and all pointed their way, along with a large, tan and brown speckled dog-like creature that growled at them, his hair standing on end and teeth bared. After a few moments, two very tall armourless people exited the tunnel as well, their hands bound by chains behind their backs and murderous sneers on their faces, directed very pointedly at Dairon. 

 

“Dairon… what’s that?” Jester whispered, her eyes on the dog. Her mind was torn between finding it terrifying and also oddly adorable, but the growling pushed it more into the terrifying zone of things at the moment. 

 

“Fucking blink dogs.” Dairon hissed, standing in front of and very slightly to the side of Jester, more or less blocking her from the guards and blink dog, her fists up and her posture stiff. She cleared her throat before speaking, her voice loud and filled to the brim with confidence. “Fancy seeing you guys here! What’d you do, smash open the door?” 

 

“Yes, actually.” One of the guards, his armour lined with a golden trim that the others lacked, stepped forward. His helmet was down but his voice was clear and articulate, and Jester could see narrowed blue eyes through the eye slits, what little skin she could see a tanned brown like Beau’s, albeit darker from being cast in the shadow of the helmet. “Your running ends here.”

 

“Fat chance,  _ Captain _ .” Dairon scoffed. “If you just kill me, you’ll never find out where the crown is.” She held out her arms, showing off her lack of satchels or anywhere else to hide the crown. “After all, it’s obviously not with me.”

 

Jester’s heart was fluttering, and she looked over her shoulder, eyeing the support beams once again. They had to get out of here. She glanced down at her hair bundled up in her arms, and her frying pan still clutched in her hand.

 

No time for hesitation anymore. 

 

She took the frying pan and held it into Dairon’s open palm, the thief’s fingers automatically closing around the offered object, her head flickering in her direction and questions written on her face. Jester just gave her a wink, quickly untangling her hair and turning to face the support beams, readying her hair to throw.

 

“What are you doing?” One of the guards called out, confusion clear in his voice. 

 

“Nottthhhhiinnnnggg-” Jester said. Around her neck, Sprinkle (who had napped throughout just about everything so far) woke up, and evidently realised exactly what she was attempting to do, based on the high-pitched squeaking that ensued. “I’m just an innocent leetle tiefling! Dairon kidnapped me, go fight her!”

 

“Kidnapped?”

 

“Hey!” Dairon sounded oddly affronted. “I told you, I  _ don’t  _ kidnap people!” 

 

Jester ignored that, her eyes on the support beam. She wound up and  _ threw  _ her hair as hard and far as she could, farther than she’d ever had to throw it before. It fell short, the ends of it brushing the support beam, but not enough to wrap around it and hang on. 

 

“She’s going to try and swing!” One of the guards, perhaps the one with the gold-trimmed armour, shouted out. “Stop her!” 

 

“Oh!” Dairon gasped, and Jester heard a shifting of fabric and feet behind her, of Dairon jumping back into a fighting position. 

 

Jester frantically pulled back all her hair to try again, glancing over her shoulder to see some of the guards and the blink dog rushing towards them. Some of them hung back, obviously wary of dropping off the cliff if too many of them fought in such a perilous space. Dairon wielded Jester’s frying pan like she’d used it all her life, clocking the first guard to reach them right in the face with a sickening clang. The poor guard stumbled backwards, dazed with the sound still ringing in the air, before crumpling to the floor.

 

“Holy shit.” Jester heard Dairon mutter, a vague sense of awe in her voice. Jester’s mouth curled into a smile. Frying pans. Great for cooking, great for fighting. 

 

Still looking over her shoulder while pulling in her hair as quickly as she could, Jester caught a glimpse of the vaguely-cute-mostly-terrifying blink dog, bounding his way towards them, tongue dropping out of its mouth in a way that would have looked goofy if it hadn’t been  _ running to attack them _ . 

 

Then the dog vanished with a light pop. Poof. Gone. For a split second Jester froze, trying to reconcile a vanishing dog, before she heard Dairon swear and swing the frying pan up just as the dog reappeared with another pop a few feet above her. The frying pan connected and the dog flew backwards with a yelp, well over the edge.

 

Jester’s heart stopped beating and her eyes following the dog as it began to fall, before it blinked out of existence again, another pop sounding from somewhere behind her. 

 

Oh. Blink dog. She got it now. 

 

“Jester!” Dairon’s voice startled her out of her shock and she kept pulling up her hair, finally getting it all back up again and winding up for another swing. Behind her was the continued sound of metal and fists hitting metal, Dairon managing to hold her own on account of the guards both being wary of the edge and probably trying not to accidentally kill her, lest she take the location of the crown with her. Perhaps they were also trying to be careful not to make Dairon fall backwards, potentially knocking Jester off the cliff. Jester wasn’t sure if they considered her an enemy or an innocent, but as long as there was the uncertainty, she could take advantage of it. 

 

Her hands were shaking with adrenaline as she threw her hair once again, with all the strength she could muster. It arced through the air, slapping onto the support beam, the momentum carrying it around and wrapping tight around the wood. A few quick tugs confirmed it was tight, and Jester grinned, looking back at Dairon, who was still preoccupied with the guards.

 

Before anyone else could react to her success, Jester darted a few steps back from the edge of the cliff, just next to Dairon, slipping one arm around her waist and gripping her hair with her other hand.

 

“Hold on!” She called out. Dairon gave a quick sound of surprise before obeying, kicking the closest guard away from her while looping her own arm — the one holding the frying pan — around the front of Jester’s shoulders, the most she could really do since they were both facing opposite directions. Based on some slightly scandalised gasps from the guards, Jester was pretty sure Dairon was flipping them off with her free hand, but she didn’t have time to worry about it as she ran the few steps to the edge of the cliff and leapt.

 

For the brief moments before gravity took hold, Jester felt like she had the split second after she’d leapt out of her tower. Fear welling up, all the stories of terrible things that could happen to her flashing before her eyes. But then they began to fall, the wind rushing past her, Dairon cheering as they zoomed away from the cliff, her hair holding true and stopping them from plummeting to the ground. The fears melted away, replaced by nothing but intrepidation and glee. 

 

There was a popping sound, almost indiscernible from the rush of wind in her ears, before Jester felt a sudden weight pull her down, followed immediately by Dairon screeching and squirming in her grasp. Jester looked down to the see the blink dog firmly attached to Dairon’s boot and not letting go no matter how much she kicked.

 

A cracking sounded from above and now Jester looked up, seeing the support beam her hair was holding onto splintering. They were close enough to the ground that it wouldn’t matter except for the tiny fact that that support beam was connected to all the other support beams for this gorge. 

 

Eh, it’d be fine. Probably.

 

As their swing got them as close to the ground as possible, Jester yanked at her hair with her free hand, pulling it loose and further cracking the support beam. She winced at the sounds of more splintering but didn’t look back as her, Dairon and the blink dog all stumbled to the ground, tripping and sprawling as their momentum carried them forward a few more feet. 

 

Jester tripped onto the ground and rolled onto her back, her chest heaving for a few moments before she sat up, automatically beginning to pull her hair in while staring up at the cliff where the guards were left. The guards, appearing so small now that they were so far away, were standing close to the edge of the cliff they’d jumped from, heads shifting from looking down in their direction to up at the support beams, that continued to crack and splinter. They quickly turned and ran, back into the safety of the tunnel.

 

While Dairon wrestled with the blink dog, Jester’s eyes widened as the cracks multiplied, spreading from beam to beam to the large wooden wall at the very back of the gorge. The dam. It was a dam. Dams held lots of water. 

 

Oh no, this wouldn’t be fine. 

 

“Daaaaiirrrooonnn-” Jester couldn’t tear her eyes away from this imminent disaster.

 

The biggest crack yet sounded, echoing throughout the entire gorge, making Jester’s heart skip a beat. Even the blink dog paused, his ears flicking up and letting go of Dairon’s leg to stare at the back wall of the dam. Dairon stared too, her face falling.

 

The blink dog whimpered before vanishing with a pop, reappearing close to the edge of the wall forty feet away, then blinking to a ledge, then to another ledge, higher and higher. Then it paused, barking. 

 

“We’ve gotta go.” Dairon scrambled to her feet, pulling Jester up and grabbing at some of her hair that lay on the ground, pushing her into a run. Jester’s lungs were already burning but she kept running, running past rock formations in the middle of the gorge, making the most of every single second that the wooden wall still held. 

 

She could feel a pit in her stomach forming just a split second before there was one final crack. 

 

There was silence. 

 

Then, a tsunami. 

 

They’d gotten a fairly decent head start. But the gorge was long and narrow, with very few places for either them or the water could go. Jester could see a dark, horrifying shadow rising behind her, thundering sounds filling her ears, her feet kept from stumbling by the sheer speed Dairon was running at as she pulled her along by the hand.

 

Nowhere to go. A snapping sound pierced the air, followed by the whistling of rock formations falling. Just in front of her, Dairon glanced over her shoulder and Jester saw fear in her eyes, with not even a trace of the cockiness she usually had. Dairon’s eyes widened as the shadows they were cast in grew swiftly darker and Jester sensed rather than saw the pressure of hundreds of tonnes of rock bearing down on them. 

 

They changed directions in a flash, Dairon pulling her forwards and pushing her into a side-tunnel that Jester hadn’t even seen.

 

A deafening crash roared behind them and they were plunged into near darkness, with barely a sliver of sunlight making it through.

 

They kept running, fumbling along walls and trying not to trip.

 

Even that small light vanished and Jester felt water, warm from a day of being in the sun, brush around her feet.

 

They kept running, ignoring the splashing around their ankles that turned to wading around their knees far too quickly. 

 

Soon they couldn’t run anymore but they kept going, nothing but Dairon’s hand holding onto the back of her shoulder and the heavy breaths from behind her to remind her that she wasn’t alone here. 

 

The water reached her thighs and Jester let go of her hair completely, letting it drift around her and just focusing on pushing forwards. There was nothing but darkness, no light at the end of this tunnel but she kept going, her hands reaching forwards to guide her way.

 

She kept going until her hands hit rock, and then she stopped. 

 

The rock was ice cold to the touch, a sharp contrast to the warmth of the water that was nearly up to her hips. She felt around, moved to the left and right, but the rock, what felt like hundreds of individual rocks all piled up so tightly they formed a wall, only began to curve backwards. There was nowhere else to go but back, and going back meant certain death.

 

“Oh no, oh nononono-” She murmured, trying to pull at some of the rocks. Without a word, she felt Dairon glide past her, her hands banging on the rocks, grunting as she tried to get a grip, but her hands were wet and slippery. 

 

The water continued to rise, unrelentless. Up to her waist, up to her elbows. Her breathing was beginning to quicken, the darkness so absolute she could see nothing but vague shapes and shadows, and even that was hardly more than a brief discernment of darkness and even darker darkness. 

 

“Dairon- Dairon what do we do-” This was so much. She’d already gone through so many different emotions all at once today, cycling through at a breakneck speed as things continued to happen. But now there was nothing but fear. She clawed at the walls, desperately trying to find purchase.

  
If she hadn’t left her tower this wouldn’t have happened. Father had been right, Father had always been right-

 

“We’re getting out of here!” Dairon shouted through gritted teeth, and Jester didn’t need to have any light to know that she was still pounding at the rocks. “I’m not dying in a- shitty- ass- cave- in- this- fucking-  _ kingdom!” _

 

Each word was punctuated with either a clang from the frying pan or the sound of a fist hitting rock. The water was up to Jester’s shoulders now and still rising, and her legs were automatically treading water, her arms paddling frantically to keep herself above the water.

 

She heard Dairon take a deep breath before cutting off, and Jester could only hear her own heavy breathing and the streaming of water. Panic bubbled within her before there was a splashing and a sharp intake of breath. 

 

“Dairon?” Jester called out but Dairon dived back beneath again and again, returning each time just long enough to take another breath and go back down. “Dairon!”

 

A soft whimper escaped her lips, and the next time Dairon emerged it was with a curse and a hissing of pain, and she didn’t go back under. 

 

“Fuck-Gods _ damnit- _ ” Jester felt the water shift violently around her from Dairon’s kicking, and she moved forward, arms reaching out to grab hold of her, reaching for that touch. 

 

“Are you hurt?” She asked.

 

“Doesn’t matter. There’s-there’s gotta be a way out, a loose rock-” Somewhere in the murky blackness one of Jester’s hands found Dairon’s bicep, and she took hold of it and pulled herself close, both of them legs kicking in a loose rhythm, their breathing fast and shallow. 

 

“I don’t want to die.” Jester whispered. 

 

“You won’t die-you’re not gonna die, you don’t deserve to die.” Dairon’s voice was edged with panic but still felt so genuine, and Jester clung to every word, even as her heart seemed to speed up with every passing second, her breath getting faster and faster. 

 

“Hey, hey, you gotta keep calm.” Dairon didn’t sound very calm herself, but she was at least calmer than Jester. “We keep calm, we can find a way out of this. There’s always a way out.” 

 

Jester nodded even though there was no way Dairon could see, linking hands and wrists so that she wouldn’t lose track of her, and to try and keep herself afloat. She’d never learned to swim. That reminder sent another wave of panic through her, even as she tried desperately to stay calm like Dairon said. 

 

“Come on, just listen to me. Don’t worry about the water, I’ll find a way. Just-just think of something fun.” Dairon’s fingers rubbed circles in her wrist and Jester squeezed her eyes shut, though it barely made a difference. 

 

“I-I don’t know. Can you think of something?” Jester’s voice was so quiet she was certain it was drowned out by the running water and the thundering of her own heart. Sprinkle was whimpering against her neck, curling up tight and shaking.

 

“Okay, okay, sure.” Dairon stammered for a few moments, her voice quick and some of her words almost slurred together in her haste to get them out. “Okay, here’s a story. You said you liked stories. I’ve really only been a criminal for like, four years. Before then, I spent two years at this monastery-type place. Ever heard of one of those?”

 

“No.” Jester murmured, trying to shut out everything except the story Dairon was telling her. Her cheeks were wet, and she couldn’t tell if it was from the water or tears, or perhaps both. 

 

“Well, it was basically like this school slash library, way way at the edge of the kingdom. And that’s where they taught me how to punch and fight and climb walls and sneak around even better than I could before. And one of the teachers there, Dairon, she showed me how to flip people onto their backs.” Dairon was talking so quickly it seemed like she was barely thinking about what she was saying, but Jester caught every word.

 

“You have the same name as your teacher?” She sniffed. “That’s so cool.”

 

There was a pause, and Jester could hear Dairon exhale slowly. “Uh-no, not really. My name’s not actually Dairon.”

 

“It’s not?” 

 

Dairon began to chuckle hollowly, one of her hands wriggling out of Jester’s grip for a moment before returning. “No. But my teacher Dairon was so cool I-I thought I’d take her name as well as her lessons. I’ve never told anyone that before. Not anyone who didn’t already know me before I left that monastery.” 

 

“What’s your real name?” Jester asked. The thundering of the water had lessened, the water less choppy, but it still rose. “If-If you want to tell.” 

 

There was another pause. “Beau. Beauregard, really. I-I guess it’s okay I tell you now.”

 

Jester’s heart seized. “I thought you said we’d be okay.” 

 

“I’m sorry.” Dairon… no,  _ Beau’s _ voice wavered. “I’m sorry you got caught up in all of this. All of my drama and my secrets and bullshit.” 

 

Jester didn’t respond to that for a few moments. She could feel the roof of the tiny cave they were in quickly approaching. Soon, there would be nowhere else for them to go. The water would rise up all the way to the top and then… 

 

“It-it’s okay. I have secrets too.” Jester’s voice hitched. “My hair-it’s super magic. Really super magic.”

 

“Yeah?” Beau croaked. Jester felt her head hit the top of the cave and she cringed, choking back a sob.

 

“Yeah. It can heal and it makes Father young again and it glows all when I sing the special song…” Jester trailed away slowly, suddenly becoming very aware of her hair, drifting all around her. “It glows when I sing.”

 

“It.. it glows when you sing?”

 

“It glows when I sing!” Jester spat out some water that had made its way into her mouth, before launching into the hastiest rendition of the song she had ever done in her entire life. “ _ Flowergleamandglowletyourpowershinemaketheclockreversebringbackwhatoncewasmine-” _

 

As she sang the water rose those final few inches but she kept going, tilting her head to try and get out every syllable possible before she only had enough time for one final gulp of air, just barely managing to close out the first verse.

 

Her eyes squeezed tight underwater, she felt Beau’s hands disentangle themselves from hers in a swift movement, before noticing an almost imperceptible glow through her eyelids, accompanied by a familiar and painfully welcome warmth in her veins. 

 

She opened her eyes to fuzziness, long lines and pure silver light dancing in front of her vision. A blurry washed out blue-and-brown shape kicked and swam away from her, arms pulling away at rocks that had been impossible to find in the previous darkness. 

 

Kicking as best she could underwater, Jester tried to follow the blurry Beau-shape, squeezing her nose shut with one hand. She felt a distant sucking sensation that quickly graduated into a full on vortex, as Beau continued to pull away rocks, opening a hole to… somewhere. 

 

In the oddly-lit murkiness, Jester saw a blur reach out to her, that slowly coalesced into a hand. With not a moment's hesitation, she took the hand, letting the water pull them both out of the cave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (: (: (: (: (: (: (: yay for name reveals now i don't have to edit half my chapters because i realised i called Beau Beau while Jester still thinks her name is Dairon


	8. Chapter 8

Beau and Jester were spat out of the cave into a river rather unceremoniously, getting but a split second of time free falling into the air before they splashed back into water. Beau kicked and thrashed to reach the surface again, gulping in that sweet, sweet oxygen, something she’d been near certain she wouldn’t get any of ever again.

 

After a few moments of just breathing heavily, she felt Jester’s hand, still held in her own, squeeze tightly, and she glanced around just as the tiefling’s head popped up for her, gasping in an even deeper breath than she had. She then promptly began flailing about like she’d never swum in a river all her life.

 

Now that Beau thought about it, she’d lived in a tower her whole life, so yeah, that made sense. 

 

The current began to carry them downstream while Beau tried to stop Jester’s flailing from dragging them both underwater again. Her hand stung from where she’d cut it or something on rocks in the darkness, and her legs had already been aching from the running and fighting, so they needed to get to land soon.

 

But she couldn’t help but laugh, because they were  _ alive _ . They were fucking alive, despite practically everything in the universe conspiring against them! 

 

Jester momentarily paused in her unintentional attempt at drowning her, both her arms now wrapped around Beau’s shoulders. For a second she just looked at Beau, her hair plastered to her face and her eyes wide, before she began to grin, and then she burst into giggles as well.

 

“We’re alive!” Beau exclaimed, before kicking them towards the closest bank of the river.

 

“We’re alive!” Jester repeated it, her voice breathless. “We did it!”

 

Beau reached out and grabbed fistfuls of grass on the riverbank, managing to get a decent grip. Once she did Jester was able to haul herself up and out, reaching down a hand to help Beau out as well. 

 

They both collapsed down on the bank, their feet still dangling in the water, rolling onto their backs with their chests heaving. 

 

“Your hair glows.” Beau tilted her head to face Jester, a giddy smile on her face. Her brain felt it was still stuck somewhere back in the canyon, and all that was left was the pure glee of not being  _ dead _ . “Your hair is magic.”

 

“Your name’s Beau.” Jester looked back at her, her cheeks almost a shade of purple. Her freckles were a pale blue in contrast, almost like stars dotting her skin. 

 

“Yeah.” Beau’s voice trailed away, a tiny pit forming in her stomach. “Shit, I told you my name.” 

 

There was a stangled, choking sound, and a long crimson weasel that Beau had only vaguely noticed, since it spent most of its time napping around Jester’s neck, coughed and crawled its way away from the river, makings its displeasure very, very known.

 

“Oh Sprinkle, I’m so sorry.” Jester pulled herself up into a sitting position, tucking strands of hair behind her ears — which didn’t do much since it was all wet and messy anyway — and shuffling closer to the weasel, which growled half-heartedly. “We’ll never do that again, promise.”

 

The weasel made a pathetic wheezing sound before dropping its head onto the ground and falling asleep. Jester cooed, scooping the creature into her arms and apologising for the whole experience a few times.

 

Beau just stayed laying down where she was, taking in deep breaths as the adrenaline flowed out of her system, the initial survival giddiness draining away too. She’d told Jester her actual name. She’d said more about herself to this one girl that she’d only met that morning, than she had to any of the dozens of people she’d known since she became a criminal. 

 

Sure, it had only been because she thought she was going to  _ drown  _ within the next minute or so but  _ still _ . 

 

She dragging herself up into a cross-legged position, running one hand through her hair, which was somehow still hanging onto its bun. Half of her hair had fallen out, sure, but the ribbon was still there, going strong. Good. Beau liked that ribbon. She undid the ribbon properly with that hand, wiping excess water off her face before going to try and redo her hair properly.

 

As soon as she began running her fingers through her hair to try and give it some semblance of neatness, a stinging pain shot through her, and she was forcibly reminded of the injury she’d gotten.

 

Wincing, Beau looked down at her bad hand, seeing and jagged and nasty looking cut on her palm, blood still oozing out of the wound. Nothing that would kill her, but it would certainly make things difficult for the next week or so. 

 

Scooching a little further away from the riverbank, Beau began to rummage through her pockets, trying to find any spare bandages or hand wrappings she could substitute as bandages, holding her injured hand to her chest. Next to her, Jester was pulling the rest of her hair out of the river, sighing at the amount of dirt and mud that was strewn through it. Finding her pockets devoid of spare wrappings and bandages (of  _ course  _ she’d decided to keep them in her satchel), Beau just took a moment to breathe, watching Jester. 

 

She scrunched up her nose a little as she picked a stick out of her hair, the tip of her tongue just poking out the side of her mouth. It was adorable, really. The end of her tail was just visible from the edge of her dress, flicking this way and that seemingly without Jester really thinking about it. 

 

Beau felt her stomach begin to flip and she quickly looked away, up at the sky above her through the trees. It was just afternoon, having taken a few hours to get to the Evening Nip and then another hour or so of Jester charming approximately every person with eyes (and a few without) in the place before they’d had to run. 

 

If they really wanted, they could probably get into another hour or two of walking before it began to get dark. Hell, they needed to figure out where they were now. But Beau’s body ached just at the thought of it.

 

“I’ll look for some firewood.” She forced herself to her feet, ignoring the protests her legs put up at it. The bank they’d dragged themselves to seemed alright. There were plenty of trees around and the ground was flat, and already Beau could see spots that weren’t covered in grass, making them ideal locations for campfires. 

 

For ten minutes or so she trudged around the area, picking up as many sticks as she could with one hand before taking to a small dirt-covered area that was close to the riverbank where Jester was still picking leaves out of her hair. After the third or so trip, Beau noticed Jester looked at her with squinted eyes. After the fifth trip, she spoke up.

 

“Are you okay?” She asked, before her eyes widened. “Oh, you hurt yourself back in the cave, didn’t you?”

 

Beau dropped the sticks she’d been holding with her other hand, uncurling her injured hand from her chest and looking down at it. Yeah, it was still bleeding. Sluggishly, but still. “Yeah. Nothing too bad, don’t worry about it.”

 

Jester frowned, putting down the hair she’d been holding and patting insistently at a spot on the ground next to her. “Come here, I’ll fix it.”

 

“What?” Beau blinked, opening her mouth to ask how Jester would do that before remembering what she’d said in the cave. “Oh. Super magic hair.”

 

“Super magic hair.” Jester nodded, smiling smugly as Beau plopped herself down on the ground, hesitating for a moment before holding out her hand. It had been such a long time since she’d had someone else look at one of her injuries. A long time since someone had cared enough to look.

 

“Oh, this looks painful.” Jester humphed, turning Beau’s hand over and poking around the wound. She prodded just a little too closely, sending a bright jolt of pain shooting through Beau’s arm and his hissed. 

 

Jester cast an apologetic look up at Beau, hastily withdrawing her hand for a moment. “Sorry. Father says I don’t really have a very good bedside manner. Whatever that means.”

 

“Can you heal it?” Beau asked, as Jester pulled at the closest bunch of hair. “Like, how good at healing is this… hair magic…”

 

“I don’t know. The worst thing I’ve ever had to heal was the time I broke my arm. I fell while I was painting the ceiling.” Jester shrugged. “This I can definitely do, though.” 

 

“Broken arms…I think there are some healers that can do that.”

 

“Really? I thought I was the only one with magic like that.” Jester looked up at her again, halfway through wrapping up Beau’s hand in hair. Beau distantly wondered about the possibility of infection from hair that had been dragged through a muddy river, and also whether this would leave Jester’s hair stained with blood or not. 

 

“Oh no, regular healers don’t have magic hair like you. They have to channel magic through like, focuses and amulets and things. But there aren’t a lot of them. Hardly anyone can do magic anymore, these days.”

 

“Wow. Father’s very good at magic, he’s taught me lots of tricks.” Jester puffed out her chest proudly. 

 

One of Beau’s eyebrows quirked up, and she tilted her head. “Like what?” 

 

“Mostly little stuff. Like, I can make the windows open and close all dramatically, without touching them. And I can make candlelights different colours, and I could use them to do cool lighting for puppet shows and things.” Jester smiled fondly, like she was thinking of happy memories. Then her shoulders sagged a bit, her voice taking on a wistful tone.  “Father thought they were funny.”

 

Beau shifted awkwardly. Everything she’d heard so far about Jester’s father, something about it rubbed her the wrong way. Jester obviously loved him, so she figured she was just paranoid, but paranoia had saved her ass more than once. Either way, Jester didn’t seem bothered by the lull in conversation, double-checking her work so far before glanced back up at Beau.

 

“Ready?” She asked, sounding a little excited at the prospect. 

 

Beau shrugged loosely, relaxing her posture and leaning backwards slightly, resting her weight on her free hand. “As I’ll ever be.” 

 

Jester nodded, looking back down at Beau’s hands. She closed her eyes, her eyebrows knitting together in concentration, and began to sing.

 

“ _ Flower, gleam and glow, let your power shine. _ ” 

 

It was a soft melody, far slower and more careful than the incredibly rushed version she’d gone through in the cave, which Beau had barely paid attention to anyway. Now that she was listening, it was beautiful, each note sweet and carefully practised.

 

“ _ Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine.”  _

 

The air around them seemed to shift, energy buzzing around them almost imperceptibly. Noticing it, Beau straightened up just a little, her eyes drawn by something she couldn’t describe to the top of Jester’s head.

 

“ _ Heal what has been hurt. Change the fates design.”  _

 

As she watched, the roots of Jester’s hair began to glow. The already soft and shimmering silver brightened, as if reflecting moonlight despite the fact that the sun hadn’t set yet. The glow began to travel down the hair at a steady pace and Beau watched it with wide eyes, her gaze following the seemingly endless lengths of hair as all of it slowly became aglow with magic. 

 

She’d seen this in the cave, but it had been blurry and marred by how busy she’d been trying not to drown to really appreciate it. Seeing it now, slowly and calmly and the way it was meant to be done, she was spellbound. 

 

“ _ Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine.” _

 

The glowing reached the hair that was wrapped around her hand, and a soft warmth permeated it, seeming to bleed into her skin and easing the throbbing pain she’d been trying very hard to ignore up until now. A tingling sensation shot through her nerves and she felt a shiver down her spine, but it was a good one. 

 

“ _ What once was mine.”  _ Jester let the final note hang in the air for a few moments, before squinting one eye open, her previously solemn and focused face breaking out into a grin. “Well? What do you think?”

 

Beau took that as an invitation to unwrap the hair around her hand, finding the wound completely healed, with not even a scar. The only remnants of the injury were the splotches of quickly drying blood, and after washing that off in the river, there was nothing. 

 

“Wow.” She opened and closed her hand. Even some old bruises and scars on her knuckles were gone. Holding it up against her other hand, the difference was obvious. “No wonder you were worried I was going to kidnap you or something.”

 

Jester snickered nervously, twiddling with the hem of her dress. “Yeah. Pretty amazing, no?” 

 

“Definitely. Almost as pretty as you.” Beau winked, sending Jester into another quick spin of giggles. 

 

“Are you just trying to make me heal you all the time?” She waggled her eyebrows, and her cheeks flushed up, though she didn’t appear embarrassed. 

 

Beau shrugged casually, tilting her head away and smiling. “No, just trying to make sure you won’t ever tell anyone else what my real name is.” Healing was fun, but that would end as soon as Jester got back to her gilded cage. But news of her name could spread fast, and once that bird was let loose, it wasn’t going to go back. 

 

Jester hummed to herself for a moment, like she was considering it. “Okay, I won’t tell anyone… if you tell me why you changed it in the first place.”

 

“Because Beauregard is a boy’s name, so it’s dumb.” Beau said without hesitation. Jester blinked, before raising one eyebrow. 

 

“Really?” She leaned in a little closer, but Beau just felt slightly amused. “I’ll tell you about  _ my  _ super secret history.”

 

Okay, Beau was honestly rather interested in hearing that, if only to see what Jester considered a ‘super secret history’ since she’d been rather open about most of her life thus far. 

 

She sighed, mentally sorting out what she was going to say in her head. “Fine then. My parents named me Beauregard because they thought I was going to be a boy. They were wrong, obviously, but that didn’t stop them.” She rolled her eyes, casting her gaze towards the pile of sticks and kindling they had yet to light into a fire. They’d have to do that before the sun went down.

 

Jester was quiet, listening intently with curiosity written all over her face. Usually, Beau would’ve clammed up long before now. With all the other criminals at the Evening Nip, she’d always made a point of being cagey with her past, even by the standards of criminals with shady pasts. It took two years before she even told anyone (alright, it had been Yasha) how old she was. And she hadn’t even given her the correct age. 

 

But Jester was just so open and… well, innocent in a way, that it was easy to talk to her. Easy to admit things. A part of Beau distrusted it immensely, but there she was. 

 

“So I guess that was probably the first sign of a childhood full of them refusing to adjust their expectations. About anything.” She winced, holding her elbows. “Not that I made it easy for them.”

 

“Did you pull pranks on them?” Jester asked, tilting her head to the side, which only made her even cuter than she already was. That was just unfair, how was Beau supposed to keep up her devil-may-care attitude when Jester was like this. “Father and I pull pranks on each other all the time.”

 

Beau held up a hand, waving it in a ‘so-so’ fashion and trying not to make eye contact. “Eh, pranks, minor felonies, they didn’t see the difference. In any case, eventually they got sick of dealing with me, so they sent me off to the monastery of the Cobalt Soul. Used to be this super cool society, now it’s mostly full of beefy nerds and kids whose parents didn’t want them around. That’s where I met Dairon, who is a ridiculously beefy nerd, she taught me shit, eventually I ran away and decided to change my name so I wouldn’t have to deal with any of it anymore. I could just start my own life. Get away from the kingdom.”

 

Her voice quickened as she rushed through the story, suddenly feeling more and more antsy about it. She didn’t meet Jester’s eyes until she finished, biting the inside of her cheek and trying to appear relaxed about all of this, even if her heart was fluttering. 

 

“They sent you away?” Jester sounded surprised, her hands resting in her lap but tensing up a little. “Father would never send me away anywhere.”

 

“Your dad doesn’t seem to want you to go  _ anywhere  _ ever, period.” Beau couldn’t help a snapping edge seeping into her voice, and she knew Jester noticed it, the tiefling’s eyebrows rising up a little.

 

“He just wants to keep me safe.” She said.

 

Beau shifted into a cross-legged position, her hands resting stiffly on her knees. “Yeah, well there’s a difference between keeping you safe and keeping you completely isolated. A really fucking important difference.” 

 

“It’s different for me, because of my magic. It’s not safe.” Seemingly unconsciously, Jester took a chunk of her hair and began threading her fingers through it, her gaze falling to the ground. Beau’s heart panged. She’d not seen Jester upset yet. Scared, yes, she’d seen that in the cave. Upset, no. She didn’t like it. 

 

But if there was one thing Beau could do, it was spit out the truth. Even if it often came out at the worst possible times. 

 

“You’ve been just fine so far. The only danger you’ve been in has been because of me and my criminal record, not your magic and your hair. Magic is rare, but it’s not  _ that  _ rare.” 

 

“Well…” Jester bit her lip. “He’s still trying his best. He loves me.”

 

A sour taste burned Beau’s throat, and she exhaled sharply, her voice growing bitter. “That makes one of us then. But intentions mean jack shit if its stopping you from making your own life. If I were you, I’d have left that tower years ago, and never gone back.”

 

Jester fell silent, and Beau bristled. She hated this silence, this silence that  _ always  _ happened. A silence her parents had given her, that Molly had given her, Yasha, everyone she’d ever known. The silence that told her ‘you went and said too much, just like usual. Good fucking job.’

 

Beau stood up quickly, distantly noting that she even felt like she had more energy than she had before. “I mean, whatever. It’s your life, I don’t care what you do. I’m going to go find more firewood.”

 

Jester didn’t point out that they already had enough firewood for a decently sized fire, either because she wanted Beau gone as much as Beau wanted to be gone, or because she just didn’t know how much firewood they needed for a campfire. Either way, she stayed silent as Beau shuffled away, kicking at the dirt once she was comfortably out of sight. 

 

She never could just leave well enough alone, could she. 

 

By the time she returned with another entirely unnecessary bundle of firewood, the sun was finally slipping behind the trees, the sky darkening as night took hold. Beau lit the fire and busied herself making sure it didn’t go out, trying to avoid eye contact with Jester. This was just what always happened, wasn’t it. No matter how nice the other person was, no matter how patient, there was always a way for Beau to ruin it. It was inevitable.

 

“Beau?” After a while, Jester spoke, and Beau glanced up, one eyebrow raised. “Are you mad?”

 

Wait… mad? She blinked, trying to process how in the world Jester came to that conclusion. 

 

“I’m not mad.” She said slowly, leaning back away from the fire and looking at Jester properly, frowning. 

 

“You seemed upset.” Jester had shuffled a little closer to the fire as the night grew darker, Sprinkle curled up in her lap and sleeping soundly. “I thought maybe I said something.” 

 

Beau’s frown deepened, and she wondered not the first time exactly what kind of man Jester’s father was. Jester wasn’t entirely wrong, but a part of Beau knew that it wasn’t Jester’s fault she believed whatever her father told her. It seemed she hadn’t had the opportunity to get the opinion of anyone else until now. 

 

“I was a bit upset. To me, your father sounds like a dick.” She said simply, before hastily adding. “But that’s none of my business.” 

 

Jester shifted uncomfortably, pursing her lips together. “I guess. Your father sounded kinda mean, too. Both your parents, really.” 

 

Beau shrugged. “Could’ve been worse.” 

 

“But no parents should be mean to their kids.” Jester looked so earnest about it, even as Beau searched her face for any kind of sign that she didn’t believe what she was saying. But there was nothing. 

 

“Well, some parents are. Mine had to keep up appearances somehow.” Beau rubbed her wrists out of a simple need for her hands to have something to do. 

 

“What kind of appearances?” Jester shuffled just a little closer to her, and Beau cast a wary eye at her. She’d already said so much tonight, far, far more than she was usually comfortable with. Normally she’d have absolutely no problem with just clamming up and refusing to give up a single sliver of information ever again, especially after the tense moments they’d already gone through. 

 

Still, she found herself sighing, and continuing to talk anyway. “My dads the captain of the Guard. If word got out that he couldn’t handle one kid, there’s no way anyone would take him seriously.”

 

There was a short pause, before Jester broke the silence.

 

“Okay yeah, if I was a criminal and I heard the captain of the guard got outmatched by a little kid, I’d  _ totally  _ be laughing at him. Like, wow.” Her voice was matter-of-fact. “If I were you, I’d have painted dicks all over the wall. I bet he’d get really mad.” 

 

Beau looked at Jester for a moment with narrowed eyes. The tiefling just looked back at her, her eyes wide and innocent and her smile small but mischievous. Without her consent, Beau felt her mouth quirk upwards in a loose grin. Okay, this was ridiculous. Jester made people smile way too easily. 

 

“I don’t understand you.” She shook her head lightly, the smile still on her face. “Still, that’s enough about me. You said you had some super secret backstory, let’s hear it.”

 

“Oh?” Jester’s grin widened, and her held a hand to her chest, looking the picture of graceful innocence that was completely at odds with the playful tone to her voice. “Oh that was a  _ total  _ lie. I’m pretty sure I’ve told you like, everything interesting that’s ever happened to me ever.” 

 

Okay, now Beau burst into snickers. “I’m not surprised.” She murmured, holding up her hand to cover a yawn.

 

It had been a long time since she’d had a conversation like this. It’d probably be a long time before it happened again. 

 

“Well, this has been a wonderful day of concussions and nearly drowning, I’m beat.” Beau said hurriedly. It was rare she got to leave a conversation on a good note. “Goodnight.”

 

She laid down facing away from Jester, belatedly realising that it was probably a good idea for her to actually keep watch, especially since it usually took a long time for her to go to sleep anyway.. But almost as soon as her head hit the ground, her eyelids felt heavy and she yawned, feeling the heat of the campfire on her face as she slipped into unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sometimes i feel like posting every single chapter i've already written, just cause the one i've most recently finished is killing me and i to share it immediately
> 
> but nope. yall get to wait to share my hype
> 
> anyway beau backstory yeet
> 
> also early update yay


	9. Chapter 9

Jester was settled with her back up against a tree, a sot smile on her face while she stroked a still waterlogged and very grumpy Sprinkle until he fell asleep. She’d gathered up all her hair into a pile next to her, while Beau slept on her side facing the campfire, her shoulders and torso rising and falling gently. 

 

She’d fallen asleep ridiculously quickly, but Jester figured she probably had lots of practise sleeping on the ground. Which was sad in a way. Beau’s whole story had been sad in a way really. Jester couldn’t imagine her father ever sending her away, or giving her a boys name just because he’d wanted a boy, or anything like that. 

 

Sure, Beau was a little bit abrasive, but she didn’t deserve that. All kids deserved to be loved by their parents, as much as Jester knew she was loved by her father. But after tomorrow night, Jester would give Beau back the crown and then Beau would leave the kingdom forever. Hopefully she’d be able to have a nice life then, but the thought of it left a bittersweet feeling in her heart. It would be nice to be able to hang out with Beau a little longer, to ask her about all the cool places in the kingdom, to hear more stories about the rest of the world. To just spend time with her. 

 

Mulling over all of it, Jester sighed lightly to herself, watching the firelight cast shadows on the trees around them, and making Beau’s hair shine. 

 

_ Snap! _

 

A sound caught Jester’s ears and she perked up, sitting a little straighter and narrowing her eyes at the darkness where the sound came from, her tail twitching restlessly. Sprinkle’s ears flickered up at the same time and squinted one eye open before closing them again, deeming the sound unimportant. 

 

But all the stories of danger that Father had told Jester came rushing back to her head, and now that Beau was asleep and practically dead to the world, she didn’t feel as confident to take it on alone. 

 

She shuffled a little closer to Beau, still scanning the shadows around her with one hand finding the handle of the frying pan, where it had been left close to the campfire. With her other hand, Jester gently scooped Sprinkle out of her lap, resting the weasel down just in front of Beau’s chest where he was safe. She shook Beau’s shoulder, but her friend didn’t wake up, didn’t even groan.

 

There was another snapping sound, and the crackling of leaves being stood on. Tensing up, Jester got to her feet, biting her lip but staying completely silent. Her ears swivelled around as much as they could, now painfully aware of every frog croaking, every night time bug chirping. 

 

“Jester?” The voice that pierced the silence was familiar, but it was the very last thing she’d expected to hear, and hearing it now sent her mind spinning.

 

“Father?” Her arms, holding the frying pan in a ready position, dropped, and she spun around to see her father emerge from the shadows in the opposite direction that she’d heard the snapping sounds.

 

Father looked a little different to when she’d last seen him. There were wrinkles around his eyes and mouth, and his hair had multiple noticeable streaks of grey, and what hair was still red was dull and thin. His deep green cloak covered most of him, but his face was clear, with a look of shock and relief plastered over it. 

 

“Oh Jester...” He took a single step forward, one hand covering his mouth. Jester felt her heart leap and she raced forward, throwing her arms around him.

 

“My flower, I was so worried!” Father began to talk quickly, wriggling her arms down and looking her up and down, checking her for injury. “Are you hurt? You feel damp, what happened?”

 

“Uh-” Jester hardly knew what to do or say. “I-I went swimming? What are you doing here?”

 

“I’d only been walking for a few hours when I came across some guards. I overheard them talking about searching the forest and I just knew right away that you could be in trouble. So I ran all the way home, only to find you gone!” Her pulled her in close again, kissing the top of her head. “I was so worried!” 

 

“I’m fine, Father, I promise.” Jester smiled nervously, taking his hands. Her heart was beating a hundred times a minute, but she knew at least she wasn’t in danger. Father would never hurt her. “I’m sorry I snuck out, but I’m okay. I even made a friend!”

 

Father’s eyes cast over her for a moment, in the direction of Beau and the campfire. “Ah… Isn’t that a wanted criminal?”

 

Jester’s grin froze, her eyes twitching. Yeah, this did not sound good. “Maybe?”

 

Father’s face grew even more concerned. “You shouldn’t be interacting with criminals, they’re exactly the kinds of people who would just try to take advantage of you.” 

 

“No, she’s been so helpful to me, really!” Jester rambled, holding her father’s hands tight as she plead her case. “She’s been showing me the way and she’s been keeping me safe and she’s told me stories-”

 

“Jester, darling, are you sure she’s truly caring for you? There’s nothing she wants from you?” Father’s voice lowered, and Jester faltered, closing her mouth as she tried to come up with irrefutable evidence. But before she could, Father kept talking, squirming one hand out of her grip and reaching into his cloak.

 

“Or is she only helping you to get this crown back?” He pulled out the satchel that Jester had so carefully hidden under the stairs, where she’d been certain no one would ever find it. 

 

“You-” Her words died in her throat. 

 

She couldn’t be sure, could she. She and Beau had made that deal. Beau escorting her in exchange for the crown. They’d both known that this entire time. If Jester hadn’t had that crown, Beau would never have agreed. So much had happened since they’d made that deal… but did that mean anything? 

 

“She hasn’t been keeping anything from you? No secrets?”

 

“No, she  _ told  _ me some of her secrets, she admitted them to me.” Jester felt her fathers fingers slip from her hands, and for a moment she reached out to try and find them again before pulling her hands close to her chest, almost numb. 

 

“All of them? How can be sure she doesn’t have an ulterior motive? Does she know about your magic?”

 

“Yes…” 

  
“What if she’s trying to deceive you?” Father stepped forward and Jester stepped back, turning ninety degrees so that she was facing out at the trees, with her father on one side, and Beau on the other. 

 

“She’s not, she doesn’t have to deceive me, we have a  _ deal. _ ” Jester thought of the cave. The entire time, even as the water continued to rose, Beau had kept on reassuring her. Promising that they’d make it out eventually. “She doesn’t want to hurt me.” 

 

“She’s a criminal, Jester. She could be lying to you and you’d never know.” Father’s face softened. “I don’t want to see you get hurt, my flower.”

 

“I know.” Jester said. “I’m sorry I made you worry.”

 

“I won’t be worried anymore once you’re safe and sound back home.” Father said, holding his arms open for her to hug. “Let’s go now.”

 

“What?” 

 

“We’re going home. I don’t want you to be out here for a second longer.”

 

Jester stammered for a few moments, looking back to Beau, who hadn’t stirred at all. She hardly looked like a criminal when she was asleep. She was nearly the same age as her. “I don’t want to go yet.”

 

Father froze, surprise crossing his features for just a moment before his face became neutral agai, his brow furrowing. “Jester, we’re going home.”

 

Her heart racing, Jester bit her lip. “I want to see the lights. I made a deal, and I’m going to see it through.” 

 

Father stared at her for a few moments, and Jester kept talking, the words spilling out of her mouth in her haste to justify herself.

 

“I’ve already come so far, it’ll be all over by tomorrow night and then I’ll come right home but-I can’t leave yet.” 

 

There were a few terrible moments of silence, and silence was almost always terrifying when usually Father was so quick with his words. His face contorted through emotions that Jester couldn’t begin to decipher, before finally settling on something she could only describe as resignation. 

 

“So. I see you’ve decided you’re wise enough to make your own decisions.” His voice was cold, and automatically Jester wanted to take it all back, to run to him and go home and forget this had ever happened.

 

But she stayed still, her feet frozen to the ground, the dirt that she’d never felt before this morning stuck between her toes. 

 

“Very well then.” Father continued. “I won’t stand in your way.”

 

With a quick movement, he tossed the satchel at her chest, and she caught it with a light ‘oof’, stumbling a step backwards from the suddenness of it. 

 

“You can see through your little deal, you can pretend you’ve made a new friend, that  _ she _ cares about you. But don’t complain to me when she disappears into the aether as soon as you’ve given her that crown.” 

 

Jester held the satchel close to her, feeling the crown through the fabric. Father cast one final look at her, pausing for just a moment, long enough for Jester to change her mind. To go with him.

 

But she stayed, and he pulled the hood of his cloak up, letting it fall over his eyes. He turned around without a goodbye, vanishing into the shadows as quickly as he’d arrived. 

 

Everything was still. The crackling of embers in the campfire snapped like firecrackers, every single sound of the night time amplified a hundred times in her ears. Her hands tremble, fingers digging into the leather of the satchel, her tail hanging limply on the ground as she stared into the space her father had disappeared.

 

She’d… she’d never done that before. She’d never stood her ground like that before. But she’d done it. For her dream, and for Beau. 

 

At the thought of her  ~~escort companion~~ friend, she looked over her shoulder, finding Beau still soundly asleep, having not shifted at all during that entire conversation. But now her nose twitched, a low groan escaping her as she rolled over, narrowly avoiding smooshing Sprinkle.

 

She didn’t know what to think. After all, hadn’t that been the deal? Once Beau showed Jester the lights, she’d give her the crown and then they’d never see each other again. Jester had  _ known  _ that, she’d agreed to that, she was the one who’d suggested it in the first place! This had always been an arrangement with a time limit.

 

So why did the thought of never seeing Beau again feel so bad? Why did she still want to picture herself sticking around just a little longer, seeing a little more, being with Beau for just a  _ little  _ longer?

 

She’d thought she’d been handling all of this so well. Barring the more… deadly moments of this trip so far, everything had been so wonderful. So much more wonderful than she’d even imagined. 

 

Father had always said that if she left her tower, she wouldn’t even last a minute before she’d be attacked by criminals, ruffians, evil people. But she’d lasted practically a whole day. She’d met criminals, but they were so much nicer than she’d thought they would be. Rough, sure. But not the irredeemable evil Father had always spoken about. 

 

No, Beau had helped her. She could’ve easily left Jester behind, run away and saved her own skin, doubled back to the tower to tear through it until she found the crown. Who knows if Jester would’ve found the way back herself. When the guards had arrived Beau had planted herself between them, defending her just as much as she’d been defending herself. Even Molly and Yasha and the others in the Evening Nip, they’d all been nice to her, they’d listened to her.

 

Beau had told her stories, fun things like her favourite colour and food, and things like her real name and how… how her parents had failed her.

 

Jester thought back to all the questions Beau had asked her about her father. Her voice echoed in her head. 

 

He didn’t lock her up. She just wasn’t allowed to leave.

 

It was for her own safety. Except things were nowhere near as dangerous as he’d warned. He left the tower all the time, surely he’d know that? He wouldn’t lie to her. Would he? 

 

She slunk towards a tree at the edge of the light from the campfire, slumping down to the ground against the trunk. The satchel in her heads felt like a lead weight, the crown inside a fireball just waiting to detonate. 

 

Father had said that as soon as she gave Beau the crown, she’d disappear forever. A tiny part of her wondered… what if she gave her the crown now?

  
Would Beau still keep her word? Would she still take her to see the lights? Would she take her home safely? Or would she simply run into the woods, too fast for Jester to ever catch her. Beau had told her her real name, had told her so much. That had to count for something. 

 

She desperately wanted to believe that Beau wouldn’t do that. They were friends now, right? Jester had never had a friend beside Sprinkle, and Sprinkle was a weasel. 

 

After far too long of sitting there and deliberating and listening to her father’s voice and warnings over and over in her head and trying to squash the way her stomach churned and her heart fluttered, Jester stood up, circling around the tree until she found a shallow hole beneath an unearthed root, just big enough for the satchel to fit. If you weren’t looking for it, it was practically invisible. 

 

She didn’t want to risk Beau leaving. She’d keep her word and honour her deal… but she didn’t want to say goodbye yet. She didn’t want to lose the first real friend she’d ever had. She still had a whole day to see the world, to see the lights.

 

She wanted to enjoy it, and she wanted to enjoy it with Beau. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fuk u traveler


	10. Chapter 10

Beau was used to sleeping on the ground, with nothing but her satchel to act as a pillow. Right now, she didn’t even have that, but somehow she’d never slept quite so sweetly as she did that night. Or so deeply, which was doubly strange because she’d been a ridiculously light sleeper her entire life. But hey, she’d take whatever hours of sleep she could get. 

 

At least until she was rudely awoken by a dog dropping directly onto her stomach from a thirty foot height. 

 

“Oooooh- _ SHIT!”  _ Her eyes flew open and her body instinctively tried to curl up, all the wind knocked out of her. 

 

Unfortunately, there was a painfully heavy mass, wearing a harness with straps and bags slightly bigger than her satchel, now sitting on her stomach, pinning her down and alternating between growling menacingly at her and barking to absolutely no one. 

 

“Wha?” Beau heard Jester’s voice, sleeping and relatively close by.

 

“Jester! Help!” Beau grunted, trying to kick the dog — it was the fucking blink dog how had it managed to find her? They’d been dunked in a  _ river  _ their scent should’ve been non-existent — off of her and failing miserably.

 

She heard Jester gasp, and after a few moments the tiefling was leaning over her, a look of absolute delight on her face. “Puppy!”

 

“No!” Beau said indignantly. “Not puppy! Evil!”

 

Jester didn’t listen, cooing and making faces at the blink dog, who had stopped barking for a moment to peer quizzically at Jester, his tail beginning to wag, beating into Beau’s thigh so hard it would probably bruise if it didn’t stop soon. 

 

“Get it off me!” She said, trying to shove it off. The blink dog resumed its growling at her as soon as she tried, staying stubbornly planted on top of her. “This thing tried to kill me yesterday!”

 

“Aww, but he’s so cute!” Was she seriously petting the dog now?  _ Seriously? _ “I bet he was just doing his job.” 

 

“Those guards were all doing their job.” Beau deadpanned, letting her head fall back onto the ground. This was her life now, she supposed.

 

“Come on Beau, look at his face, he’s adorable!” Jester pointed the dogs face down at her, and for a moment Beau just stared up at it. The dog’s face became playful as long as Jester was petting it, a long tongue lolling out the side of his mouth, looking kinda goofy. 

 

Jester wasn’t entirely wrong. She had thought the blink dogs were cute, once upon a time. When she’d still had a house to live in and wasn’t on the receiving end of the dogs tracking abilities and irritating teleporting. Now they were just a pain in the ass. And currently, her stomach. 

 

She lay there on the ground as Jester cooed over the dog, silently imagining everyone she’d ever known finding this utterly hysterical. 

 

“You do know that if I’m gonna show you the way to the kingdom, I can’t have this dog on me.” Beau finally said. At least these things were trained to catch and subdue, not tear apart. Usually a blink dog was accompanied by soldiers to make the actual arrest, but somehow this one was alone.  Perhaps the very same one that had nearly gotten Beau when they’d escaped the dam. Must’ve ended up separated from the rest of the guards, and decided to continue on the only mission it’s probably tiny brain could remember, hunting her down.

 

The dog growled again at her when she shifted, trying to ignore the massive weight on her body. She was pretty sure her legs were numb. 

 

“What do we do with him?” Jester asked, kneeling down on the ground and looking absolutely enraptured at his fur, stroking it softly and petting its head.

 

“We can figure that out once he’s  _ off _ .” Beau said pointedly. 

 

Jester sighed, before starting to half-heartedly nudge the blink dog off of her. It wouldn’t have worked, except for that very moment the dog suddenly noticed the crimson weasel wrapped around Jester’s neck, who up til now had been doing his best to stay very still and very quiet. 

 

There was a brief moment of stillness, of the blink dogs ears pricking up and the weasel stiffening. Beau saw Jester tense up a little as well, realising what was about to happen just a fraction too late. 

 

In a flash the blink dog had bounded onto Jester, its legs pushing painfully into Beau’s chest and knocking the breath from her lungs  _ again _ as the weasel flung itself off with a high-pitched shriek, scattering away as quickly as it could. 

 

Jester yelped as she was knocked backwards by the barking dog, making a loud ‘oof’ as the dog nailed  _ her  _ in the ribs in its haste to get what it presumably thought was a snack. A tiny part of Beau felt a small twinge of vindication as Jester swore. 

 

Beau jumped to her feet, automatically dropping to a defensive stance as she watched the weasel run for its damn life, scrambling up the closest tree and wailing before the blink dog teleported onto a branch above it, fumbling and falling to the ground as the weasel ran off, starting the chase again.

 

“Fuck!” Jester clambered to her feet, wincing and holding a hand over her ribs. Then she took in what was happening. “Oh no, Sprinkle!” 

 

Jester jumped into the fray, running after both dog and weasel and only succeeding in trailing her hair around half a dozen trees before it finally got caught on something, pulling taut and sending her straight back to the ground on her back before she could recover herself. “SHIT!” 

 

Beau took a moment to catch her breath, trying to remember the times her father had taken her to see the blink dogs being trained. There were special words to say, but she couldn’t for the life of her remember what they were. Well, no harm in trying. 

 

“Stop!” She shouted first, to no avail, her shout lost in the endless barking from the blink dog. Damnit, if this kept up someone would hear. 

 

“Heel! Stay!” She kept shouting, running through every command she could think of. “Home!”

 

At that the dog finally froze in its tracks, giving the weasel a chance to dive into a knot in a tree, safely out of reach. Beau felt a swell of triumph as the dog turned its head to look at her, only for that triumph to immediately sour to regret when the dog started charging at her, suddenly remembering what his last task had been. 

 

Three seconds later, Beau was back on her ass, on the ground, with what felt like a hundred pounds of blink dog on top of her. Gods fucking damnit. 

 

She groaned loudly, and after a while Jester walked up to her, most of her hair bundled up in her hands and looking wary, a hissing Sprinkle perched on the top of her head.

 

“That’s not nice!” She said, dropping her hair to the ground and putting her hands on her hips. “No chasing weasels!”

 

“Oh, but chasing me is fine?” Beau asked dryly, ignoring the growl from the blink dog. 

 

“You should’ve thought of that before you became a criminal.” Jester stuck her tongue out at her, and Beau rolled her eyes. True enough, she supposed.

 

Jester knelt down, tucking some hair behind her ears. “Still, I’d really like for you to get off Beau. She’s very important.” 

 

The blink dog tilted its head at Jester, almost as if it understood. Then it looked back at Beau and growled again. Yeah, the feeling was mutual. 

 

“Please?” Jester asked, beginning to pat the dog again. “She’s very nice, I promise, and she’s got a very important job right now showing me the festival and the lights. You wouldn’t want me to miss the lights just because you had to arrest her, right?” 

 

The dogs head tilted again, its ears drooping slightly. No. This could not work. Beau craned her neck to look up at Jester, seeing her pulling out the biggest doe-eyes she’d ever seen. The kind that could make all but the most evil people in the world give in. 

 

The blink dog made a low whining sound, looking back at Beau again. Jester nodded sympathetically, scratching it behind the ears, which it seemed to like a lot.

 

“After today you can chase after her as much as you want, if you like.” She said. After a moment of silence, she cleared her throat. “Plus it’s my birthday.”

 

Beau was one hundred percent certain that blink dogs had no concept of birthdays, but somehow that declaration actually seemed to seal the deal. The blink dog gave one last look at Beau, who had watched this conversation halfway convinced she’d blink and find herself in the afterlife because there was no way this could be real, before whimpering and slowly getting to his feet, stepping on her stomach again just for good measure as he got off her to sit on the ground next to her. Rude. 

 

She got to her feet before the blink dog could change its mind, scowling and brushing the dirt off her clothes. Jester’s face had lit up, and now she was petting the dog again, calling him a goodbye and sweetie pie and all the things one called a dog that hadn’t tried to bite your face off. 

 

“If you tell it to stay, do you think it will keep listening to you?” Beau asked, folding her arms and narrowing her eyes at the blink dog, which was enjoying all of the attention very much. 

 

Jester turned to look at her, aghast. “We can’t leave him behind! He’s adorable!”

 

“He’s trying to arrest me.” Beau deadpanned, before making a face at the realisation that a blink dog had come closer to arresting her than the rest of the guards ever had. 

 

“But he’s sooooo cute-” Jester pushed her face up against the blink dog, turning those ridiculously cute puppy eyes on Beau without remorse. The blink dog, for his part, wasn’t even growling at her anymore, his tail wagging happily and looking very goofy. 

 

“There is no way we’re taking a blink dog with us.” Beau scowled, staring Jester in the eye.

 

Two hours later, Beau was still scowling as they walked towards the city, Jester running ahead and calling the blink dog - that she had named Nugget for gods knows what reason - to come to her, her laughter carrying on the breeze.

 

There was some comfort in the knowledge that Sprinkle was just as unhappy with this recent development as Beau was, the weasel having actually migrated to Beau’s shoulder, hissing whenever Nugget strayed too close. Sometimes Beau joined in the hissing, not that Nugget ever got the message.

 

It was ridiculous. The last thing they needed was to cart around a highly-recognisable blink dog belonging to the royal guard. They were conspicuous enough already, and Nugget was only going to make things worse.

 

But seeing how happy Jester was now, she didn’t even have to heart to continue complaining about it. So she kept her distance from the dog and commiserated her misery with Sprinkle, keeping an eye on the path around them.

 

The closer they got to the city the antsier she got. She hadn’t been back there since stealing the crown, and she doubted the kingdom had forgotten about it. She was fairly good at blending in, but she wouldn’t be surprised if the entire guard was on the lookout for her. And Jester, now that they’d been together at the canyon. 

 

On the other hand, it was also the day of the Lantern Festival, so Beau knew that many of the guards would be busy with making sure that ran smoothly. There were hundreds if not thousands of tourists visiting for the event, the streets filled with vendors and people, which all lended itself well to becoming just a part of the crowd. 

 

She heard Jester made an ‘ooh’ing sound ahead and glanced up. Jester made that sound approximately once every thirty seconds, whenever she noticed something new that she’d either never heard of before, or had only heard of in stories or books. But this one was quickly followed by a laugh, which caught her attention.

 

Beau saw Jester standing in front of an old, weathered tree at a crossroads, which was littered in posters and noticeboards. Nugget was bounding around her, tongue hanging out and pushing his head into her legs for attention while Jester had ripped off one of the posters, practically cackling at it. Beau’s heart sunk.

 

“Traci? They call you Traci?” Jester waved the poster as Beau stomped up, just frantically enough that she couldn’t grab it out of her hands to rip it up so that no one could ever look at it. “I thought your fake name was Dairon!”

 

“It is.” Beau scowled, finally nabbing the paper and squinting down at it. “I called myself Tracy  _ once  _ while I was still figuring out a fake name, and the guards fucking ran with it. Assholes.”

 

“But if your dad’s in the guard, wouldn’t he know your real name?” Jester tilted her head, still grinning. 

 

“Yes. Yes he does.” Beau crumpled up the wanted poster, looking back at the tree to see if there were any others.

 

“But he put down the wrong one anyway?”

 

“Yes. Yes he did.” She found a few older ones, that labelled her as ‘Tracee’, ‘Traycie’ and ‘Chraysee’ respectively and gods that last one was just pathetic, ripping them all down and destroying them beyond repair. 

 

“What a dick.” Jester said bluntly, a frown crossing her face. 

 

Beau scowled, shifting uncomfortably on her feet before glancing around her. There were some carriages coming down the path towards them, and she did not want to be hanging around suspiciously ripping down wanted posters when they arrived. “Look, the city’s this way, we’re nearly there.”

 

Perking up immediately, Jester darted to her side, Nugget bounding along on the other side of her, making sure the tiefling was between it and Beau (and Sprinkle). 

 

“When will we get there? How soon?” She asked, tugging lightly on Beau’s arm, her eyes alight with excitement. Beau couldn’t help but smile. She wished she could be that excited about things. 

 

“Soon.”

 

Sure enough, it was only a few more turns before Jester was able to point out the very tips of the tallest towers poking out through the trees, a few more before the forest path they were on gave way to a far more travelled cobblestone road, and the two girls — plus their animals — were able to more or less blend in with the crowd of tourists arriving for the festival. 

 

They approached a large archway that led into the city proper, patrolled by two guardsmen on either side, that were thankfully too busy inspecting carriages to notice Beau and Jester ducking down between two groups of travellers, trying to appear as inconspicuous as possible. 

 

They weren’t quite in the prettiest part of town yet, having entered through what was more or less a side entrance into the city. Buildings stretched tall here and were close together, and the stream of people pulled them along closer to the centre of the city. But there were still banners flying and flags waving from windows, brilliant cloth shining in colours of silver and blue, depicting the moondrop symbol of the kingdom. 

 

Jester’s eyes had widened as soon as they’d hidden themselves within the crowds of people, and now they were practically as big as dinner plates, her head flicking around to every new thing, pausing barely a few seconds before moving on to the next. Her smile was so wide she could see practically every tooth, and if she hadn’t been holding her hair in her arms to stop it from getting stood on, she probably would’ve been pointing at hundreds of different things every few seconds.

 

“Welcome to Nicodranas, Jester.” Beau said, for once able to ignore the sinking in her stomach that arrived every time she stepped foot in the city that this kingdom was named after. Not even the dog was bothering her as much. 

 

She had always enjoyed the lantern festival, she supposed. Her father had always been so busy with the guards, her mother had never paid her too much attention if she could help it, it had been easy for her to slip away into the crowds and find something fun to do. Usually she’d up sitting on top of the highest building she could reach alone, watching the lanterns float up into the air. Wondering whether her parents would ever light a lantern for her if she went missing. She knew they wouldn’t. 

 

But this year… she wasn’t alone. She had Jester to enjoy it with. For some reason the thought of that made her smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *finally* we get to Nicodranas. I'm honestly shocked it took me this long to get here.
> 
> Anyway, for anyone wondering how Beau managed to sleep so deeply last chapter, all I have to say is... ~magic~ 
> 
> Can the Traveler make people fall asleep in canon? Heck if I know but he can here. Anyway the next few chapters after this one are some of my personal favourites so get hyped.


	11. Chapter 11

It was amazing. It was incredible. It was absolutely  _ stupendous!  _

 

Jester didn’t know where to look first. There were vendors setting up stalls with candied apples and tiny flags. The scents of flowers and sugar and things Jester had never smelled before filled the air, and the distant sounds of laughter and cheers drifted through her ears. She could feel her stomach twisting into knots, her entire body vibrating with nervous excitement. 

 

Her hair was balled up in a pile held loosely by one arm, while her other reached out to take Beau’s hand, dragging her through the streets in the general direction of the most noise. 

 

Beau put up a token resistance, huffing and humming but ultimately not really trying to pull away, and when Jester looked over her shoulder she could see her smiling just a little, so she knew that it was okay. Her heart fluttered in her chest, and she grinned widely back before turning to face straight ahead again.

 

They darted through the streets, Beau calling out directions every now and then but mostly allowing Jester to lead the way, Nugget bounding along beside them with his tongue lolling out of his mouth and Sprinkle half-buried within Jester’s gathered hair, holding on as tightly as he could. 

 

Streets began to widen, crowds growing thicker and the air becoming sweeter. Jester paused to look at every vendor they came across, of which there were so many that it took them twenty minutes to just get past one city block. Many of them were locals using the festival as a chance to get far more customers than they usually would, which resulted in a massive variety of things for sale. Fruits, flowers, trinkets.

 

Jester hovered at one table for a while, which held stone carvings of all sorts of things, from people to animals to flowers, many of them inlaid with shiny glass gems and painted in beautiful colours. She picked up one hand-sized statue of a tall, handsome looking man, painted with elaborate clothes, teal skin, and deep blue gems for eyes, a golden crown on his head. Jester picked up the statue, turning it over in her hands and marvelling at the craftsmanship, at the man depicted himself.

 

“You like? I based it off the mural.” The stall-owner, a portly middle-aged human man with sparkling eyes and calloused fingers from years of work, smiled at her. 

 

“Who is it?” Jester asked, looking around her for some kind of mural that might give her a clue. Something about it felt so familiar. 

 

“The king, Jes.” Beau peered over her shoulder, looking down at the statue. “The one who went missing.”

 

“Not from around here, I suppose?” The stall-owner nodded, and Jester slowly nodded as well, still focused on the tiny statue. It was cool to the touch. “Ah, rest his soul. He was a good king. Perhaps not the wisest, but he cared for us.” 

 

Jester heard Beau stifle a scoff behind her, which the stall-owner didn’t seem to notice, his attention currently on Jester. “That statue there will run you about three silver pieces, if you’d like it. Five silver pieces if you buy the queen as well, that’s a whole silver saved.”

 

Jester’s throat tightened, and she noticed the stall-owner pointing out another statue, the same size as the one she was currently holding but depicting a tiefling woman with beautiful red skin and thick dark hair, wearing an ornate dress that was decorated in jewels. They were both beautiful.

 

“Oh.” She tore her gaze away from the statues. “I don’t have any money, sorry.”

 

She placed the statue back down on the table and was ready to walk away, when Beau cleared her throat. “I’ll get them for you.”

 

Jester’s eyes widened and she looked at her friend, who seemed slightly surprised at her own words, before shaking her head slightly and nodding, cheeks flushed ever so slightly.

 

“You know, if you want it. Or whatever.” She folded her arms and looked away, and Jester grinned.

 

“Really?” She’d never had someone buy something for her like that before. Father gave her gifts for her birthdays and when she was very good, but this was different. She wasn’t sure how, but it felt different. 

 

“Uh, yeah. Five silver, you said?” Beau hastily reached into a pocket like she might change her mind if she thought about it for too long, practically throwing the silver pieces at the stall-owner and scooping up the statues, presenting them to Jester. “Here you go. Happy birthday.” 

 

Jester covered her mouth with her hand, partly because she thought she was going to start giggling, and partly because she wasn’t sure how to respond. Beau’s cheeks reddened the longer they just stood there, and Jester felt her own heat up, as she removed her hand from her mouth and took the statues. Her statues now.

 

That Beau had bought her. As a gift. For her birthday. Because she’d been looking at it. 

 

“Thank you!” She bounced forward, throwing her arms around Beau and letting her hair fall to the ground, not even caring if it got dirty. Beau tensed up for a moment before relaxing, chuckling nervously.

 

“It’s okay-really, I-uh, it’s nothing.” 

 

“I’ll put them right next to my bed back home and I’ll be able to look at them always.” She said, hugging the statues close to her chest, just imagining it. A permanent reminder of this day, of the kingdom she hadn’t even known existed until yesterday morning. Of Beau. 

 

She pulled away from the hug, gathering up her hair again when she realised it was starting to be stood on, holding the statues tight in her hands as they moved on from the stall, the owner wishing them a happy festival as they left. 

 

“We’ve got to do something about your hair.” Beau spoke a little quickly, her fingers fidgeting as she looked around. 

 

They walked out into an open square, which had a massive marble fountain in the middle. More stalls were set up around the outskirts of the square, but the middle was mostly clear, a few people resting on the sides of the fountain, children running around with ribbons and streamers fluttering after them, giggling as they weaved around people. 

 

Jester looked over, not quite sure what to look for but her mind still somewhat stuck on Beau buying her the statues. It had just been so nice and… unattached. It wasn’t a reward for doing something well, or for doing something she’d been asked to do. Beau had just seen her looking at the statues… and bought them for her. 

 

She couldn’t actually remember the last time Father had done that. Even her birthday presents from him tended to come with a week of him reminding her to be good lest they mysteriously disappear. 

 

“Ah, there.” Beau’s voice startled her out of her thoughts, and she tried to pretend she’d been distracted by the fountain (which was very pretty) before looking to where Beau was looking. She saw another stall, this one hosted by a small group of strange-looking people with floppy ears and oddly-shaped noses, all very tall with pink hair and… were they fuzzy? They looked fuzzy.

 

“What  _ are  _ they?” Jester whispered, her jaw going a little slack. Some of the strange people were holding bouquets of flowers, calling out to passersby to perhaps buy a bunch or two, while some of the smaller ones were braiding each others hair, poking flowers into them. 

 

“Firbolgs. I think these guys usually run the city graveyard, actually.” Beau said, steering them in the direction of the stall, one arm slung around her shoulders.

 

“Wow.” Jester tried not to look like she was staring as they approached, one of the firbolgs noticing them. 

 

He was one of the middle-sized in his family, though still far taller than almost everyone else in the square. His head was shaved in an undercut slightly like Beau’s, though the hair that hadn’t been shaved was far longer, and braided in one long, loose braid and hung off one side of his head. Dozens of multi-coloured flowers had been tucked into it and his baggy, flowing clothes, making it look like the flowers were growing off of him. 

 

“Nice to meet you two today. Would you like some flowers?” The firbolg smiled down at them, his eyes not quite fully open and a soft smile on his face, giving him a sort of serene look. 

 

“Actually, we saw you were all braiding each others hair and wanted to ask a favour.” Beau said, gesturing vaguely to Jester’s mass of hair. 

 

The firbolg looked at Jester and he didn’t even seem surprised by the hair. 

 

“Hmm. That is indeed an awful lot of hair.” His voice was oddly even, but in a calming way. It was kind of relaxing, to be honest. “I’m no good at braiding myself, but my nieces and nephews are.” 

 

He turned to some of the smaller firbolgs that were busy trying to braid each others hair. “Cordelia, Caelan, I’ve got a challenge for you.”

 

Two of the firbolgs, one a boy with a similar undercut to the taller one split into three braids rather than one, and the other a girl with very long darker pink hair with only half her hair braided so far, looked up at the sound of their names, their jaws quickly dropping when they saw Jester standing there with her mass of hair. 

 

“Oh my gosh!” The boy, Caelan, raced forward, almost vaulting over the stall and running up to Jester’s side. “You have so much hair!” 

 

Jester giggled, while the girl, Cordelia, walked around the table, carefully reaching up and stroking Jester’s hair, eyes wide. 

 

“Can we braid it? Can we?” Caelan asked, bouncing on his toes. 

 

“We’re going to need Cherie and Colton for this.” Cordelia said solemnly, before whistling behind her. Two more firbolgs poked their heads up from behind the stall, gaping and running around to see just like the first two had done when they noticed. “Alright, let’s do this.” 

 

Jester allowed the four firbolg children to lead her towards the edge of the fountain, letting them take her hair and stretch it out behind her, preparing to braid. Cordelia led the charge, barking out orders and calling for brushes, combs, and a  _ lot  _ of flowers. She went about the task like a general ordering their troops, and when Jester glanced back towards the stall, she saw the first firbolg and Beau still standing there, watching with smiles on their faces. Well, the firbolg had a smile. Beau’s face was more neutral, which was kind of like a smile. 

 

Sprinkle was left with Beau, while Nugget bounded back and forth between them, distracting the children (much to Cordelia’s chagrin) with demands for attention and otherwise not acting very much like a dog of the royal guard at all. 

 

“Your hair is so pretty!” Caelan had been assigned the job of flower decorator, organising the ones that had been chosen into groups to carefully tuck into her hair, which for now left him sitting next to Jester while the three others worked at the actual braiding. “How did it get so long?”

 

“I’ve never cut it.” Jester admitted, trying to resist the urge to look over her shoulder to see what the others were doing. She’d tried that twice already, and both times Cordelia had snipped at her not to do it, lest she disturb their work. 

 

“Wow.” Caelan’s eyes were sparkling. “Are you from out of town? I think I would have remembered someone with hair as long as yours walking around.” He paused for a moment, frowning. “Wait, is that disrespectful? My Pa says sometimes I ask too many questions.”

 

“I don’t mind.” Jester said quickly. “I  _ am  _ from out of town. I’ve never been to this kingdom before.”

 

“Are you coming especially for the lantern festival?” 

 

“Oh yes. I’ve always wanted to see the lights up close.” Jester gushed, closing her eyes and holding her hands to her chest. It was hard to imagine, today was really the day. The day she’d been dreaming about for  _ years _ . 

 

Caelan nodded, not at all aware of exactly how much this day meant to her. “They’re really pretty, you’ll really like them. Did your girlfriend bring you?” 

 

All at once, Jester jolted in surprise, earning a small admonishment from Cordelia. “My- girlfriend?”

 

“Yeah. The one talking to Uncle Caduceus.” Caelan pointed over to where Beau and the other firbolg were standing, now chatting amicably to one another. Beau seemed to be frowning a little, waving a hand dismissively at something Caduceus had said, before looking towards Jester. 

 

Their eyes met for a moment, and suddenly Jester felt the blood rush to her cheeks. She tore her gaze away, looking back at Caelan, who was looking up at her innocently.

  
“Beau… Beau’s not my girlfriend.” Jester said, fidgeting with the statues still held in her hands. The ones Beau had gotten her. 

 

She forced herself to stop, looking straight at Caelan. “She’s just a friend.”

 

“Oh.” Caelan’s face fell a little, and he looked sheepish. “Sorry, I thought-”

 

“It’s okay.” Jester said quickly, not wanting to upset a little kid. A thought occurred to her. “What made you think we were girlfriends?”

 

Caelan thought hard for a moment, glancing back and forth between Jester and the stall where Beau was standing. 

 

“Well, she had like, her arm around your shoulders when you walked up, and her face was kinda red like when my Ma and Pa look at each other when they’re being all lovey.” He shrugged, now looking thoughtful rather than guilty. “Usually they kiss a lot whenever they get like that, which is gross.” 

 

He stuck out his tongue and Jester smirked, before it faltered a little. She and Beau weren’t girlfriends. They were just friends, and even then she wasn’t a hundred percent sure Beau considered  _ her  _ a friend. Besides, this wasn’t how romances worked. Usually it was love at first sight, where you’d lay your eyes on your soulmate and just  _ know  _ that you were meant to be. That was how it always went in the stories in her books. 

 

But then again, Jester had thought a lot of things before she’d left her tower that she wasn’t so sure about anymore. Maybe romance was just another thing. Her stomach was pinching, her heart fluttering, and she looked at Caelan again. 

 

“Do you know how your parents knew they were in love?” Her voice was quiet, and she didn’t even know if she wanted to hear the answer. 

 

Caelan thought very hard for a few more moments, seeming to take every question very seriously. 

 

“Well, they said they met in the forest. Ma was taking a nap and Pa was lost and tripped right over her. Ma helped him find his way home, but then she wanted to see him again so she went to see him again, and eventually they fell in love and got married.” He said, shrugging lightly. 

 

Jester nodded slowly. That didn’t quite sound like the kind of romances she’d read about either. Did she want to see Beau again after this? Yes. She did. But it was normal for friends to want to keep in touch, right? A tingling feeling was starting to rumble in her stomach, barely noticing the light tugs on her hair as the other firbolgs worked. 

 

“But how did they know they were in  _ love? _ How-how did they know they didn’t just want to be friends?” She asked.

 

“Pa says he figured it out when he kissed her for the first time. He said it felt like there was nothing else in the whole world, just her and him, and he wanted to do it again and again.” Caelan said, hesitating. “I don’t get it though.” 

 

They lapsed into silence, and Jester looked back down at the statues. Jester had never had a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend. She’d never kissed anyone, not on the lips where the most romantic kisses happened. 

 

Did she want to kiss Beau? The very thought made the tingly feeling in her stomach leap into her throat, a rush of something she couldn’t even describe pulsing through her. She couldn’t. There was just no way. She’d told herself she was going to enjoy this one day with Beau, and then it was going to end and she was going to go home and everything was going to go back to normal. 

 

She’d thought she was okay with that. Maybe she wasn’t anymore. Maybe a part of her didn’t want this day to end. 

 

She didn’t know what to do. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok first of all the hardest part of this story by far was me deciding how much the stone statues should cost. And making up a whole family tree for Caduceus because if I'm gonna introduce family members I'm gonna do it RIGHT
> 
> ANYWAY HERE COMES THE GAY 
> 
> Also if you'll notice, we now have a beautiful little 11/19 chapters up there at the top and YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!??? It means I've finished writing the story and now know exactly how long it is and that means SHORTENING THE UPDATE TIME AYYYYYYYYYY
> 
> SO now you get DOUBLE the blue lesbians every week! Have fun with that yeet and I'll see y'all on Sunday


	12. Chapter 12

Beau’s hands felt clammy, twiddling her fingers and leaning up against the firbolgs flower stall, watching as the four children slowly and methodically began to braid Jester’s hair. It was a very involved task, it seemed, and Jester herself was chatting with one of the boys, Caelan. 

 

Jester seemed happy, if slightly flustered about whatever Caelan was talking to her about. Her cheeks were flushed and Beau was slightly curious about it, since not even the Evening Nip had seemed to faze her that much. 

 

“Enjoying the festival so far?” Caduceus was smiling softly, looking down at the bouquet of flowers he was carefully arranging, but undoubtedly talking to her.

 

Beau blinked, trying to think of some ulterior motive he could have. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, it’s pretty great so far.”

 

Probably the best lantern festival she’d had in a while. 

 

“Have you bought a lantern yet? If you don’t they might run out.” 

 

“A lantern?” Beau hesitated. She’d… never actually bought a lantern for the festival before. Her parents had always bought two. One for each of them. Not one for her. By the time she was old enough to be upset about that, she hadn’t wanted to spend the lantern festival with them anyway, and she’d never considered buying one for herself. 

 

It had just felt… pointless, she supposed. Why buy a lantern that would only get lost among the masses, when she could be squirrelling away any money she did have for when she’d finally escape. Not that she ever got the chance to  _ use  _ that money she’d been hiding away. For all she knew, that emergency fund was still hidden beneath the floorboards in her room. 

 

“I didn’t think about it.” Was what she said to Caduceus, who didn’t so much as blink at the pause she’d taken.

 

“Well, if you’d like to, you’d best get in quick.” He said. “They’re quite beautiful to watch, especially with your loved ones.”

 

Beau stiffened for a moment, her eyes immediately darting towards Jester, which Caduceus  _ definitely  _ noticed. His eyebrows slowly rose, and Beau felt her hackles begin to rise, her mind already coming up with defense to an attack that hadn’t actually happened. People rarely discussed loved ones with her. 

 

She bristled, waiting for Caduceus to say  _ something _ , but he didn’t. Instead, he let the silence hang there for a moment, which was almost as bad as if he  _ had  _ said something. But finally, he did. 

 

“I’m sorry, did I misunderstand something?” 

 

“Jes-” Beau bit the inside her cheek, folding her arms and digging her fingers into her elbow.  _ Did  _ he misunderstand? Beau wasn’t usually shy about how she felt. Usually because what she felt tended to be a desire to punch the closest guard. “Jester’s just a friend. We’re just here for the festival, and then we’re parting ways.”

 

There was no point in considering Jester as anything  _ more  _ than a friend, because she was just going to leave anyway. Even a friend was a stretch. 

 

“Friends can be loved ones too.” Caduceus said mildly. “Even friends who you’re only with for a few days.” 

 

He spoke with an air that spoke to him knowing far more than he really should, and part of it put Beau on edge. He didn’t know jack shit about her, nothing more than what she’d told him. But it sure felt like he did, and she didn’t like that at all. 

 

“Well, it looks like they’re nearly done with your friend.” Caduceus was still smiling, even though Beau was scowling. But he wasn’t wrong, The four firbolg children were putting the finishing touches on their work, before straightening up and observing, giving each other high fives for a job well done. 

 

Jester stood up, her fully braided and decorated hair now stopping half a foot above the ground rather than dragging all over the place. She was grinning, holding the two statues Beau had bought her — was it selfish if she’d bought them because she didn’t want Jester to forget about her? — and twirling around, thanking the children profusely. She was beautiful. 

 

The quintet trooped their way back to the stall, all wide smiles and smug looks. 

 

“Isn’t it so pretty, Beau?” Jester asked, spinning around again when she arrived, before taking Sprinkle from where he’d been resting calmly on top of Beau’s head, safely away from Nugget, who sat himself down between the two women, waiting for what would happen next. “Look Sprinkle, isn’t my hair so beautiful?”

 

Sprinkle made a vague chirping sound which Jester seemed to interpret as a positive comment, placing the lazy weasel on top of her own head before looking back at the firbolgs, absolutely glowing. 

 

“Thank you so much! I will keep it like this forever.” She held a hand over her chest, before pausing. “Or at least until I need to brush it again.” 

 

“It was a great challenge.” Cordelia spoke very seriously, and Beau couldn’t help but smirk a little at it, one of her ears twitching. “If you need your hair braided again, you should come back to me.” 

 

“And me!” Caelan and the other two firbolgs chorused. “It was so fun!” 

 

“I definitely will, if I’m ever in the city again.” Jester said. “Thank you, again.”

 

“I’m glad we could be of service.” Caduceus smiled languidly, casting a brief look at Beau before looking back at Jester. “I hope you two have a wonderful festival together. It only comes around once a year, after all.” 

 

Jester beamed wider before she glanced at Beau, her cheeks flushing. She quickly averted her gaze, chuckling lightly before grabbing Beau’s wrist and beginning to pull her away. “We will! Bye!”

 

Beau let herself be dragged away, barely managing a quick wave at the firbolgs before they’d vanished in amongst the crowd, Nugget trotting alongside them happily. Beau felt like her head was spinning, still stuck on her brief chat with Caduceus even though there was  _ no reason for it _ .

 

Jester was a friend. No matter how much she wondered what it would be like if she wasn’t. 

 

Jester was going to go back home tomorrow. No matter how much she imagined asking her if she wanted to leave Nicodranas with her. 

 

Jester was going to leave, Beau was going to get the crown back and she’d be able to leave the kingdom forever and never look back.

 

She’d be on her own, with no one holding her back just like she’d always wanted. Right?

 

Some people just weren’t meant to have people beside them. People like Beau. Even those brief moments with Yasha, they’d both known it wouldn’t last. Beau had been able to deal with that.

 

So why couldn’t she deal with this? Even if she  _ did  _ have feelings, which she didn’t (she did. Godsdamnit, she definitely did), it should be easy to ignore them because there was no way it would ever work.

 

But she couldn’t stop her brain from drifting to places it hadn’t gone to in years. Places where maybe Jester could be by her side, and she could… she could love her. And not be afraid of that love being ripped away and stomped on until there was nothing left. 

 

Shit. 

 

There was no way thinking like that could end well for her. But a part of her just wanted to live the fantasy. Just for a little bit. Just for a day. Just for a night.

 

Just for the festival. 

 

“Look! There’s people doing chalk drawings!” Jester squeezed Beau’s hands and she swallowed, now painfully aware of the fluttering of butterflies in her stomach and what that meant and  _ damnit why did this have to happen to her _ . 

 

Jester led her towards where some people, mostly children were drawing in an open square with chalk, their family or friends standing around and watching. Around the edges were more stalls, and Beau noticed one that sold the paper lanterns that would be used that night, dozens of the delicate silver lanterns hanging from strings waiting to be sold. 

 

The festival only came around once a year, Caduceus had said. 

 

There was no way it was ever going to work. The next morning Beau was going to take Jester back to her tower, get the crown back, and then she’d go back to being alone. To being lonely. Lonely and rich, but lonely. 

 

She distantly realised that she hadn’t felt lonely at all since Jester had been around. She was pretty sure the last time that had happened was when she was still in diapers. 

 

She was doomed.

 

Jester had found some chalk from somewhere and was already kneeling on the ground, beginning to draw long arcs, marking out a space for her work, already completely engrossed in her task. 

 

It was easy for Beau to slip away into the crowd, striding towards the lantern stall. Jester deserved a perfect day. Beau hadn’t deserved anything good in a long time. But if she made Jester happy, perhaps that could be enough. Fuck it. 

 

She was allowed to have one night. One night where she could pretend the rest of her shitty life didn’t matter. She’d gone through over eighteen years of suffering in this kingdom, the least it could do was let her have  _ one  _ night where she could just… live. Live and make sure the unfortunately attractive tiefling girl she’d been blackmailed into escorting to this city had the lantern festival she’d always dreamed of.

 

She could have one night to be happy. One night to be in love, and pretend that for once she’d be able to hold it close and not let it go. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah caduceus i love you
> 
> anyway yall have no idea how much i cackled while writing these chapters (and the next one) like oh my god these two are disasters
> 
> Also: beau's entire backstory constantly makes me sad no matter what universe she's in


	13. Chapter 13

The rest of the afternoon seemed to pass far too quickly. There was so much to do, so many things to see and people to say hello to. 

 

Jester drew pictures in chalk on the ground, of huge beautiful flowers like she’d seen in her dreams, like the ones she saw on flags waving in the breeze. Beau plucked one from a banner and handed it to her, to wrap her statues in so they wouldn’t get damaged, a tender smile on her cheek when their fingers brushed and Jester felt her entire face heat up and suddenly wondered if this was what Caelan’s parents had felt when they first met. 

 

But then Beau’s fingers were gone, retreated to stick in her pockets and her gaze drawn away to some distant point that Jester could never quite see. 

 

Jester had never found it difficult to talk but now her tongue seemed tied half the time, her eyes caught by the shine in Beau’s hair, the lazy half-smile she’d wear, the light gruffness in her voice. She just didn’t know what to do about it.

 

So she tried to focus on her original goal, of having as much fun at the festival as possible. She rushed from place to place like she might outrun her feelings. She tried candy apples, pastries with cinnamon sprinkled generously all over them, she laughed when Beau could hardly eat one without sneezing, snorting and covering her mouth when they ducked into alleyways to avoid guards that were roaming the streets. 

 

Hours seemed more like minutes, as they wandered throughout the city. Jester saw other townsfolk looking at her with sad eyes, not quite realising why until they made their way to the very heart of the city, the royal palace looming over them. There was a great mural there, shimmering stones of all different colours. A teal-skinned man and a red-skinned woman were depicted, silver crowns looking almost like halos around their heads. The king and queen.

 

Resting in their arms, in the center of the mural, was an infant, with soft blue skin and silver hair, looking almost white from the sunlight reflecting off of it. 

 

“Wow, I look like the princess, don’t I.” Jester said, taking a step closer to the mural, the weight of her two statues feeling heavy in her pocket. “That’s the princess, right?”

 

“Yeah. I guess you do.” Beau murmured. “I mean, lots of tieflings have white hair, but there aren’t that many that are blue.”

 

“Crazy…” Jester’s voice trailed off, before some musical notes began to fill the air. Her ears pricked up and she gripped Beau’s arms, her heart fluttering as she looked around for the music. “Is that a song? Where’s it coming from?”

 

Before Beau could answer, a murmuring started up from the crowd, people moving around and making space in the middle of the city centre, a trio of musicians  gliding their way around people to head towards the centre, grinning wildly as they played their instruments.

 

Without prompting, a few people paired off, gliding into the newly made dance floor and taking up positions, while some onlookers began to whistle, nudging their friends and gesturing to join in. 

 

Jester gasped, slowly looking up at Beau, who blanched, already guessing what she wanted to do.

 

“I can’t dance.” She said hastily. “Walking around is one thing, but dancing is out in the open. If a guard spots me, I’m done.” 

 

“Not if we run fast enough.” Jester waggled her eyebrows, and for a moment Beau just stared down at her, before bursting into a fit of giggles. 

 

Taking that as a yes, Jester began to pull Beau through the crowd, her heart leaping into her chest as the music grew louder, as people began to clap in time. “Besides!” She called out over the din. “Nugget can warn us!”

 

Beau rolled her eyes theatrically even as Nugget yipped happily in response to his name, before Jester burst through the line of people making the outskirts of the dancing circle, suddenly feeling a gust of fresh air when she did. 

 

Most of the other couples and trios dancing around were simply swaying or spinning in time with the music, and Jester joined them, marvelling at the sweet sounds of music she’d never really heard before swimming through her ears. After a while the song changed to one that people seemed to recognise, and Beau took her hands, explaining the steps as they went until Jester got the hang of it.

 

After a while Beau was laughing, almost all of the stiffness and tension bleeding away in the movements, her arms loose and her feet light, and Jester’s heart was soaring with feelings she’d never felt before in her life, feelings she’d never felt back in her tower. 

 

They ended the song with one final twirl, finding themselves face to face, shoulders heaving with exertion, cheeks flushed and smiles wide. For a moment Jester just looked into Beau’s eyes, holding her hands tight and wondering what would happen if she didn’t let go. 

 

But she pulled away, letting her fingers slip from Beau’s grasp, letting her eyes drift to somewhere else, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. 

 

A gong sound echoed through the city, startling Jester. Beau stiffened up too, automatically pulling up her fists before she relaxed, looking around. The crowd around them began to murmur excitedly, all beginning to head towards the front of the city, where the docks are. 

 

“What’s happening?” Jester asked, as Beau gently took Jester’s hand, stopping them from getting separated in the crowd. 

 

“They’re heading towards the boats. They’ll release the lanterns soon.” Beau’s voice had a hint of nerves, as she began to lead Jester in the opposite direction of where everyone else was going. 

 

“Shouldn’t we follow everyone else?” Jester looked over her shoulder. 

 

“Nope. I’ve got a surprise.” 

 

Beau flashed her a grin over her shoulder and Jester couldn’t help but match it. She was led off through side streets and alleyways, eventually finding herself at a tall, narrow staircase that seemed to lead to the roof of a tall building, one that looked out towards the docks. The sky was beginning to truly look like sunset, painted in oranges and pinks and blues.

 

“Wait here.” Beau said, resting her hands on Jester’s shoulders, still smiling. “I’ll be right back.” 

 

Without another word she raced off, weaving through the streets faster than she had been before, leaving Jester waiting there with Nugget and Sprinkle. For a brief moment, Jester wondered if she’d been abandoned. But no, Beau wouldn’t do that. 

 

Her eyes drifted down to Nugget, and the bags that were strapped to his back. She knelt down and opened the bag, pulling out the satchel with the crown in it. It had been a stressful few minutes trying to sneak the satchel into Nugget’s bag that morning, while Beau had been distracted complaining about the blink dog probably getting her arrested. 

 

She held the satchel in her hands now, running a hand along the worn leather. Father had said that if she gave this to Beau now… she’d leave. She’d leave and never look back, because she didn’t actually care about her at all.

 

But Jester didn’t believe that now. Beau had brought her to the city, she’d kept her safe, or tried to at least. She’d bought her statues for her birthday and gotten her a flag, and danced with her even though she’d been worried about the guards. 

 

She’d gone through the effort of making a surprise for her. That had to mean something. It had to mean Beau cared about her. Perhaps even as much as Jester cared about her. 

 

Jester put the satchel back in Nugget’s pack, pushing it to the back of her mind once again. Good timing too, as barely a minute later Beau reappeared, her footsteps absolutely silent. She had a bag in her hand, and looked breathless, like she’d been running. 

 

“Ooh, what’s that?” Jester asked deviously, leaning forwards and trying to poke the bag, giggling when Beau swatted her hand away.

 

“A  _ surprise _ . You’ll just have to wait and see!” Beau said, leaning the way up the stairs. 

 

Halfway up the stairs cut off, but Beau was undeterred, lightly throwing her bag up onto the roof before parkouring the rest of the way up, giving Jester a cocky grin over her shoulder once she was up there before turning and reaching down a hand to help her. 

 

Once Jester was up, Nugget blinked his way easily onto the roof, landing directly in Beau’s lap and licking her face despite her objections. 

 

“Ugh-you are so lucky Jester likes you.” Beau glared down at Nugget, who just licked her nose one final time, sending Jester into a fit of giggles. 

 

By the time she recovered, Beau had huffed her way to the edge of the roof. It looked like no one had been up there in a while, dust already coating Jester’s hands and dress, leaves and random objects littering the ground. But from the edge, you could see the entire port of the city.

 

“Woah.” 

 

Jester stepped forward gingerly, making her way to sit down next to Beau, their legs dangling off of the edge. The water shimmered in the dying sunlight, and she could see massive ships filled with people slowly making their way just a little ways out to sea, while other crowds gathered at the docks and in the streets, snaking their way back to the royal palace. 

 

“I’ve never seen anything like it.” Her voice was quiet, filled with awe. 

 

“It is kinda pretty, isn’t it.” Beau said softly. “Almost as pretty as you.”

 

Jester gasped, her head snapping to see Beau looking at her. Her lips were curled up into a half-smile, her arms resting behind her as she leaned back casually, her eyebrows rising up and down. 

 

For a moment, Jester mentally screamed at her beating heart to get itself under control. Then she felt herself grin, shuffling a little closer to Beau along the roof edge. 

 

“Wow, Beau. I know I am pretty beautiful.” She said smugly, taking great pride at Beau’s snickers. 

 

“Well, I can-” Beau’s eyes flickered away and she sat up straighter, looking out in the direction of the castle. “Wait, look, it’s starting.”

 

Immediately Jester snapped her head to follow Beau’s gaze, her eyes landing on a big balcony at the front of the palace, where a lone, tiny red figure was standing in front of a pedestal, guards lining the back wall. 

 

Her breath caught in her throat, Jester watched as the Queen moved slightly, before a silver light began to glow in front of her, then a second just a little to the left. With one lantern in each hand, the Queen glanced at each of them before slowly raising her arms, the lanterns catching on the light evening breeze and beginning to drift away side by side, rising up into the ever-darkening sky. 

 

In the streets where townsfolk were gathered, more and more silver lights began to appear, drifting up higher and higher, more and more of them with every passing second. 

 

For Jester the whole world seemed to stop, her heart seeming to be silenced, everything slowed except for the lanterns, the shining silver lights that she’d stared at from her window for so many years, hoping and praying that one day she’d get to see them up close. 

 

Hundreds upon hundreds of lanterns drifted gently into the sky, a graceful stream that spoke of remembrance, loss, and hope, brightening the sky as the moons beamed down on them from above. 

 

Jester just watched, transfixed, burning every single moment into her memory, before she felt a tap on her shoulder. 

 

She looked down, seeing Beau sitting there, two lit paper lanterns resting in her hands.

 

Jester’s mouth dropped open, and for a moment she just stared, before reaching out and gently touching one of them. They were so delicate. So beautiful.

 

“I figured the only thing better than just watching the lanterns was to fly one yourself.” Beau said quietly, holding one out towards her. “I’ve never flown one either so… we can do it for the first time together.” 

 

Jester held the lantern in her hands like it might shatter if she so much as looked at it right, feeling tears begin to prick at the corner of her eyes. “This-this is, I can’t believe you did this for me.”

 

Beau’s gaze held steady, biting her lip. Perhaps it was just a trick of the lantern lighting her face, but perhaps her eyes were shining as well. “Go on three?” 

 

Jester nodded, not able to even begin to form words, just turning back out towards the ocean and holding her lantern in front of her, everything she’d ever dreamed of. 

 

Beau began to count, and on three they both lightly pushed the lanterns up into the air, sending them up a few feet before the breeze caught them, two single lanterns beginning to make their way towards their brethren.

 

Jester kept an eye on her lantern for as long as she could, until it disappeared into the throng of near-identical silver lights, and then she looked back at Beau.

 

“I-Thank you. This is… this is so much more than I ever imagined.” Jester sniffed, determined not to cry, before suddenly remembering the satchel, looking over to find Nugget sitting next to her, watching the lanterns himself and panting, seeming more distracted than overwhelmed and awed like Jester felt. 

 

She pulled out the satchel, handing it over to Beau without any more hesitation. She was certain now, certain that Father was wrong about this. 

 

“Thank you so much.” She said simply. 

 

Beau’s eyes widened, looking down at the satchel before looking back at Jester, surprise clear in her eyes. Then she slowly put the satchel aside, not even opening it to check whether the crown was in there. 

 

She rested her hands over Jester’s, who felt her heart skip a beat. 

 

“Jester-” Beau hesitated, the both of them just staring at one another. Beau’s eyes were so pretty. As blue as the ocean, soft and kind and everything Beau seemed to think she wasn’t. 

 

She was pretty sure this wasn’t how love went in all the stories she’d read. But perhaps stories didn’t know everything. 

 

Without a second thought, she leaned forwards, squeezing her eyes shut and pressing her lips against Beau’s.

 

Yeah, she thought to herself, as Beau relaxed into the kiss after an initial spike of tension. Jester felt a hand cup her cheek, maneuvered her own to squeeze Beau’s other hand. Beau’s lips were slightly chapped and rough from old splits and injuries, her skin warm to the touch and a little sweaty and dirty from everything they’d done that day, but she didn’t care because it was her and Beau and nothing else seemed to matter. 

 

Yeah. She was pretty sure this was what love felt like. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahahahhaahlkasdfjhasdjalsdjfadsifahuehfarhugkgndfkghse r i love this chapter so much


	14. Chapter 14

Beau had kissed a lot of people before. In alleyways, in darkened rooms, behind trees, alone in the forests. Every one had felt like it was stolen, like something she’d had to reach forward and take. Something that had to be hidden away, where no one else could interrupt and stop them. 

 

Kissing Jester didn’t feel like that at all. It was soft and sudden and almost completely unexpected, but completely welcome. Jester was inexperienced, and Beau could feel her cheeks a bit puffed up, her hands squeezing one of Beau’s, skin slightly cold to the touch. When Beau cracked one eye open, she could see Jester’s squeezed shut. It was a little clunky. But it was perfect. 

 

For those few moments, it felt like nothing in the world could stop her. 

 

Finally, Jester pulled back, both women opening their eyes, cheeks flushed and grins beginning to spread.

 

Jester giggled giddily, leaning back and tucking hair behind her ear. “Oh wow-I, uh-” 

 

Beneath the light of the moon and the silver shine of thousands of lanterns drifting across the sky, Beau and Jester smiled and giggled at each other, fingers intertwining and heartbeats seeming to sync up, the rest of the kingdom nothing but a distant backdrop.

 

“Was that your surprise for me?” Beau looped an arm around Jester’s waist, pulling her in until there wasn’t any space between them. 

 

Jester leaned in close to her, resting her head in the crook of Beau’s neck and shoulder, sighing softly.

 

“I’ve never kissed anyone before.” 

 

Beau had figured as much, but didn’t say so. Instead, she just rested her own head on top of Jester’s. Everything seemed quiet around them in the aftermath of the kiss, even Nugget and Sprinkle napping next to each other close by. It was like everything around them had frozen, nothing in the entire world mattering more than just the two of them, sitting together side-by-side.

 

“Was it nice?” Beau kept her voice low, as if speaking too loudly or brashly might break the tender atmosphere circling around them. 

 

“I think so.” 

 

“We might have to do it again, just to make sure.” Beau smirked, rewarded with a light giggle, Jester drawing her legs up from where they’d been hanging off the edge of the roof, leaning further into her. 

 

“Maybe we do.” She snuggled in a little closer, and Beau pecked a quick kiss to the top of her head, getting another giggle. 

 

They lapsed into silence again, Jester’s head tilting upwards to look at the sky, where the silver lanterns were slowly beginning to disperse, many drifting off in different directions, scattering far and wide. 

 

“I hope it’s everything you dreamed it would be.” Beau murmured, looking up herself. 

 

“It’s been even better.” Jester’s fingers found Beau’s, curling around tight. “When I imagined it, you weren’t there.” 

 

Wow. Beau wasn’t sure if that was romantic or just sappy… but it was adorable. 

 

“I don’t understand why my Father didn’t want me to leave my tower.” Jester sighed, and Beau held her tongue, waiting to see what she would say next. “It’s so beautiful.”

 

She looked up at Beau, moonlight reflecting from her eyes, her lips quirking into a sly grin. “Everyone other than you is pretty great too I guess.” 

 

Snorting, Beau squeezed Jester into a tighter side-hug than they were already doing. “Okay, that’s just unfair. Did you get all these lines from romance stories?”

 

“Maaaaaybe.” Jester stuck the tip of her tongue out, and Beau shook her head. Cheesy or not, it was working anyway. 

 

They both sighed, Beau feeling the pulse of Jester’s heart, closing her eyes and just listening to it. She couldn’t remember the last time another person had made her feel so… loved. She didn’t want to let it go. 

 

“You don’t have to go back to your tower.” She murmured, a part of her hoping Jester wouldn’t hear it. But she did, her eyes perking up, her head lifting from where it had been so comfortably sitting nestled on Beau’s shoulder, her eyes widening. 

 

“I-” Jester bit her lip, looking away. “I can’t just leave my Father.” 

 

Beau nodded, a part of her taunting her for even suggesting it. Of  _ course  _ Jester would choose her Father over her. The two days they’d spent together, no matter how magical, how beautiful, that couldn’t erase eighteen years of a father who she loved. 

 

“Alright then. But could you ever leave again?” Uncertainty swirled in Beau’s stomach, and Jester’s pause after her question only made it worse. 

 

“I… maybe.” She was avoiding eye contact now. “If… if he sees how well I did, how well I was able to handle myself, perhaps he would.” Her voice was hopeful, looking up at the sky again.

 

Biting her lip, Beau looked downwards, wishing she could’ve just kept her mouth shut and enjoyed the night like she’d planned before ruining it by thinking about tomorrow. 

 

The streets below them were cast in eerie shadows from the light of the moon and lanterns. They were completely empty, with all citizens but the completely bedridden lining the streets closer to the docks and towards the castle for the festival. 

 

But a movement caught Beau’s eye, and when she followed it, she saw a glimpse of leather-bound muscles, hairy arms and a grizzled look. 

 

A shiver ran down her spine, as she locked on with a pair of eyes in the darkness, another shadow looming behind it. Lorenzo. Laurence, glaring behind him.

 

The last time Beau had seen them, they’d been firmly in the hands of the guards. But here they were, haunting the streets with not a single manacle or jail cell in sight. They’d found her. 

 

Oh fuck. 

 

The Shepherd brothers stared at her for a few moments, long enough for them to all know there was  _ no  _ denying the recognition. Then they slipped around a corner, disappearing into the shadows to who knows where. 

 

The crown. They had to be after the crown, after her, what if they were going to come after her? What if they came after Jester?

 

“Beau?” Jester’s voice cut through the beginnings of panic, and Beau suddenly realised she had gone stiff, still staring at the corner the Shepherd Brothers had turned around. “Are you alright?”

 

Beau’s eyes flickered towards Jester, before she looked over her shoulder. The satchel was sitting there, the crown safely inside. A distant part of Beau wondered when Jester had gotten it from her hiding place in the tower, but that was quickly overwhelmed by the realisation that it was now the  _ last  _ thing she wanted. 

 

Right now, the Shepherd Brothers were undoubtedly seeking revenge for cheating them and running off with the crown, and if Jester was anywhere near her when they tried to take it, then there was no guarantee Beau could protect her. But if they got the crown… perhaps they’d have no reason to go after her. 

 

Sure, she wouldn’t be able to leave the kingdom… but if Jester was around, perhaps that wouldn’t be so bad. She’d survived running from the law thus far, she could keep doing it. 

 

“Sorry.” She said quickly, plastering on an easy smile, scratching the back of her neck with one hand while slowly reaching for the satchel with the other. “I just realised I nearly forgot something.”

 

Jester blinked, leaning back a little, eyebrows furrowing together. “What did you forget?” 

 

Beau’s mind raced, trying to think of an excuse. She did  _ not  _ want to fuck this up. Thankfully, she’d always been good at thinking on her feet. “I had another surprise planned, but I need to go get it.” 

 

She winked, and Jester’s posture relaxed a little, a coy smile beginning to bloom. “ _ Another  _ one? How many surprises did you plan?”

 

“Only this one more.” Beau jumped to her feet, casually swinging the satchel over her shoulder. “I’ve gotta go find where I stashed it though.” She shrugged sheepishly, kicking her foot along the ground. 

 

“Can I come with you?” Jester asked, twiddling her thumbs together, looking up at her hopefully. 

 

Beau felt her heart pound. No, there was no way she was letting Jester get anywhere near the Shepherd Brothers. 

 

She shook her head, still pretending to smile. “Nah, the surprise won’t be as fun if I don’t show it up here. Trust me, I’ll be back soon.”

 

“Promise?” Jester raised one eyebrow, and Beau nodded solemnly.

 

“Promise.”

 

Jester seemed to accept that, nodding along with Beau before smiling widely.

 

“Well it better be the most  _ romantic  _ thing ever!” 

 

Beau just laughed over her shoulder, waving goodbye before moving to where she could jump down from the roof onto the stairs, running down two stairs at a time before making it onto the streets. 

 

Cool. All she had to do was find the Shepherd Brothers, give them the crown so they’d leave her alone, then figure out something super romantic to do for Jester before she got back. That was only like… three things. It’d be fine. 

 

She darted through the streets in the direction of where she’d seen the Shepherd Brothers, sticking to the shadows and hyper alert for any sounds or movements nearby. 

 

When she rounded the corner she’d seen the Shepherd Brothers turn into, the street was empty. Cautious, Beau looked over her shoulders, seeing nothing. Walking slowly, trying to make as little sound as possible with each footfall, she stepped further into the street, one hand over the satchel. 

 

“That was a brave stunt you pulled,  _ Dairon. _ ” The voice came from about ten feet in front of her, as Laurence stepped out from behind a storefront, arms folded, a glower on his face. A shadow loomed over her and Beau pivoted to see Lorenzo standing behind her, looking like he was just barely restraining himself from pummeling her to a pulp.

 

Gulping, Beau plastered on her most charming smile. “Boys! Hey, now I know we left off on the wrong foot-”

 

“I believe it was a foot in my  _ face,  _ actually.” Lorenzo spoke through gritted teeth, and Beau winced.

 

“Yeeeeeah. But hey, that black eye makes you look even more menacing!”

 

“We could’ve gotten executed because of you.” Laurence stepped closer towards her, and Beau tried to side-step around, not wanting to be boxed in. But both of the men, taller even than perhaps Caduceus, stepped along with her, blocking her path. 

 

She could feel herself begin to sweat, her heart pounding. Her fingers tightened around the strap of the satchel. Godsdamnit, she’d been working towards this for years. Now she was going to throw it all away. But it was for Jester. It was worth it. 

 

“Well, I’m glad to see you’re still breathing. And  _ so  _ sorry for the trouble I caused. So sorry, in fact, I’m just going to give you the crown.” She took off the satchel, holding it out to Laurence. “No catch, no deals, just take it and leave me alone. Bygones be bygones.” 

 

Laurence continued to glare down at her, not taking the satchel. Beau hesitated, feeling Lorenzo's breath on the back of her neck behind her. 

 

“Come on guys, it can’t get better than this. This was always meant to be our last job, we were always meant to go our separate ways. Just take the crown and we can never bother each other again.” She pushed it into Laurence’s chest, fighting back an edge of desperation that was trying to claw its way into her voice. 

 

A big, meaty hand, took hold of the satchel, and Laurence held it up for a moment, before dropping it unceremoniously to the ground. Beau flinched at the clatter, a pit dropping in her stomach. 

 

“That was the deal before you  _ betrayed  _ us.” Lorenzo’s voice was dangerously low and Beau found herself shivering, her limbs stiffening up. “Before we found a better deal. The crown,  _ and  _ revenge.” 

 

Oh fuck. 

 

Beau ducked before Lorenzo could wrap his arms around her, dropping and rolling to the side of the street, bumping into the cobblestone wall of a home. Shit. Shit, fuck  _ shit _ .

 

The Shepherds turned on her, raising their fists down to pummel her, forcing her to try and roll away again past their legs. A heavy hand fell hard on her shoulder but she kept going, trying to scramble to her feet.

 

Instead, she felt a fist encircle around her ankle, yanking her backwards with a harsh tug. Her chin hit the ground with a thud, her vision going white for a split second.

 

“You’ve made a deadly mistake, Dairon.” One of the brothers said, just before a foot slammed down on her back with the force of a boulder, knocking the wind out of her lungs. A snap filled Beau’s ears and she opened her mouth to cry out for help, before stopping herself. The only person who might be able to hear was Jester. She couldn’t let Jester get involved. She couldn’t.

 

Gritting her teeth together, Beau tried to roll herself onto her back, ignoring the terrible throbbing of her ribs and the burning sensation on her chin, kicking wildly with her free leg at the arm that held her ankle. 

 

But the Shepherd Brothers were nothing if not strong, and from her unfortunate angle on the ground, she just couldn’t get enough power behind her kicks, or the punches she attempted after that proved to be fruitless, to get them to let go. 

 

Lorenzo moved around to her head, sneering down at her with triumph in his eyes before stomping down on her chest again, catching her left side as she tried her best to dodge out of the way. Wheezing, she wasn’t quick enough to dodge a second time. 

 

One foot pushing down into her chest, Lorenzo knelt on his other knee, grabbing a fistful of her hair and pulling her head up before smashing it into the cobblestone road.

 

This time Beau couldn’t help the shout of pain, stars dancing in her vision — or perhaps they were just lanterns, still floating in the sky — before a hand clasped down over her mouth, blocking any other sounds. 

 

“Just try charming your way out of this.” Lorenzo whispered, his voice harsh.

 

Fuck.

 

Dazed, Beau stared at the Shepherd Brothers looming above her, not budging not matter how much she thrashed. After a few seconds, another shadow appeared above her, and for a moment she stopped struggling trying to squint through the darkness and the painful jolts of pain in her head to figure out who it was.

 

It was a tall man, wearing such a long dark green, hooded cloak that almost completely covered his entire body. What little of his face that was visible was cast in shadows, but vibrant green eyes, too bright for the darkness, too bright to be natural, stared down at her with nothing but malice.

 

“So you’re the one causing so much trouble.” The voice had a hint of amusement, the voice of someone who believed they had already won. “Of course it would be someone like you who would tempt her away…”

 

What?

 

Pieces slotted into place in Beau’s mind, and her eyes widened. This… this was Jester’s  _ father _ . Lo and behold, just as much of a piece of shit as she’d feared he was. 

 

Beau began thrashing again, earning a boot on her arm and another smashing of her head on the ground for her trouble. Feeling blood begin to seep into her hair, she settled instead for glaring up at the figure. As soon as she figured out a way out of here, he was  _ dead _ . How someone like him had managed to raise someone like Jester was the biggest mystery of the ages. 

 

The man continued to stare down at her for a few moments, before glancing at the Shepherd Brothers. “You know what to do with her?” 

 

Beau saw the brothers nod, her eyes widening. Fuck. She had to figure something out  _ quick _ , she had to- she had to-

 

“Ah, no point in resisting.” Jester’s father leaned down, close enough that Beau could see a sinister smile behind the shadows, his eyes seeming to glow like a cats. “It will all be over soon for you, and everything will be as it should be.”

 

No. Fuck that. Beau felt  _ something  _ seep into her bones, a shiver of energy racing up her spine, the pain in her head and her ribs and her chest beginning to feel distant. But not like they were being healed, not like with Jester’s healing magic. This… this was something…

 

This was something else. 

 

“I’m sure my flower will be so disappointed when she sees how you’ve abandoned her.” The man chuckled once to himself, and Beau had to think for a few seconds to process what he’d said, a blurry fog slowly taking over every corner of her brain. 

 

Wait, what? 

 

As she stared up, trying to figure it out, she saw Laurence, still looming above her holding down her legs, begin to shift. Before her eyes he seemed to shrink, his skin, his clothes, everything changing until he looked like a perfect replica of Beau. He picked up the satchel from where it had been dropped on the ground, slinging it over his shoulder.

 

“Feel free to do whatever you like, but try not to be obnoxious about it. Make sure she sees you.” Jester’s father said, and Laurence-who-looked-like-her nodded, a solemn smile on his face before he stood up, racing off into the darkness.

 

No. He was going to… make Jester think she’d abandoned her. No. No no no no, she couldn’t. She couldn’t let down Jester,  _ no _ . 

 

She tried to struggle one final time, but even with Laurence no longer holding down her legs, her limbs felt like lead, her eyes struggling to stay open. Lorenzo let go of her hair and her head flopped limply to the ground, darkness overtaking her vision.

 

“No…” This couldn’t be happening. Everything had been going so  _ right  _ for once in her life. Why couldn’t she have been allowed to enjoy it just a little bit longer?

 

The man stood up, dusting off his coat and casting one final, disdainful look down at her. “It was a pleasure doing business with you two boys.” 

 

With a last few moments of consciousness, Beau saw Lorenzo say something, but the words were too fuzzy to reach her ears. All she could think about was Jester. Jester, who was going to think Beau had betrayed her. Who was probably going to get whisked away back to her tower and Beau would never be able to see her again, and she’d live forever under the thumb of this monster of a man. 

  
Fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't mind me I'm just sobbing in a corner
> 
> Anyway, writing this chapter right after the last one nearly made me cry. On my planning document they are named thusly:  
> Part 13: KISS KISS KISS KISS KISS KISS KISS KISS  
> Part 14: Everything goes to hell
> 
> and it's only GONNA GET WORSE FROM HERE oops


	15. Chapter 15

Jester sat with her legs pulled up to her chest on the roof, staring up at the sky as the lanterns drifted further and further away, becoming smaller and smaller until they were almost indistinguishable from the actual stars in the sky. 

 

A stiff breeze blew at her back, sending a shiver down her spine, knocking loose a few flowers from where they had been carefully tucked into her braid. She picked one of them up, cradling it in her hands and tenderly running her fingers over the petals, waiting for Beau to come back. 

 

It had only been a few minutes. Okay, it had been like five minutes, but that was okay. Wherever she was going, whatever surprise she had hidden away, it was probably just taking her a while to find it. She’d come back. She hadn’t left Jester once yet. 

 

A distant and muffled sound of footsteps thudding on cobblestone caught her attention and she perked up, looking in the sounds direction, a knot of worry unravelling inside her heart. Behind her, Nugget woke up from his nap, ears pricking up and head lifting, ignoring an irritated sniffle from Sprinkle, who was half-hanging out of the blink dogs harness bag. 

 

Jester scanned the streets for who she assumed was Beau, coming back from wherever she’d been with some super romantic special surprise. Nugget sniffed the air, jumping to his feet and trotting over next to Jester.

 

“Hey boy, you have a good nap?” She scratched behind the dog's ears, but Nugget hardly seemed to notice, intensely focused on the sound of someone continuing to approach. Unease settling into her stomach, Jester glanced back out at the streets.

 

She saw a figure standing still in the middle of the street, looking up and around as if trying to find something. Beau. She had her satchel over her shoulder, and her stance looked odd, arms held out awkwardly by her side like she wasn’t sure what to do with them. 

 

Next to her, Jester heard a low growl from Nugget, but ignored it, breathing out a soft sigh of relief. Of course she was coming back. She’d probably just forgotten which roof she was on.

 

She was about to stand up and wave to Beau to remind her where she was, before Beau’s gaze fell on her, making eye contact. For a moment there was stillness and then in the distance Jester could have  _ sworn  _ she saw a sneer begin to bloom on Beau’s face.

 

Then she took off, running forward until she was close to where Jester was before turning sharply, racing down a street away from her.

 

“Beau!” Jester called out instinctively, scrambling to her feet. Nugget barked before suddenly blinking out of existence, reappearing again on the ground at the bottom of the house Jester was sitting on, bolting after Beau, Sprinkle an unintentional passenger. “Nugget!”

 

Jester’s eyes were wide, her mouth hanging open in shock. That… this didn’t make sense. Where was she going? There had to be some kind of logical explanation, some kind of good reason. 

 

“Beau?” 

 

Her voice was small, drowned out by the slowly fading barking of Nugget. No, there had to be some kind of mistake. 

 

That sneer… Beau had never sneered at her before. Smirked, yes, even an annoyed glare sometimes but that… a shudder ran up her spine, her arms drawing upwards, hugging herself as she took a step back from the edge of the roof. 

 

“Jester?” 

 

She spun around, seeing her father standing there in his cloak. His hood was down, his hair wispy and more gray than red now, wrinkles plainly visible around his eyes and mouth. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen him like this, but it was him.

 

She couldn’t even bring herself to wonder what he was doing here, her entire mind feeling stuck, frozen on the question of  _ why _ ? What was happening? 

 

Everything had been so perfect. So… beautiful. It felt like only moments ago Beau had been right there, kissing her, holding her. It had been absolutely perfect. What had happened? 

 

“Father- I…” She looked over her shoulder, and Father tutted, taking a step forward.

 

“I’m so sorry, my flower.” His voice was soft and warm. “I was so afraid she would leave you like this.” 

 

Leave her? No, Beau wouldn’t leave her. She wasn’t like that. Would she? 

 

“You just can’t trust people like her. I knew she’d do this as soon as she got that crown.”

 

The crown. Jester had given Beau the crown and the satchel, and now Beau was running away with it. No, there had to be an explanation. A reason why Beau would just bolt off like that, why she’d been acting so strangely, why she’d taken the satchel with her. 

 

She couldn’t think of anything. 

 

“I tried to warn you, my dear.” Father had walked all the way up to her now, a gentle hand caressing her hair. 

 

“I don’t… I don’t understand.” Jester turned around, straining her eyes to look through the streets, hoping for Beau to jump out, give a perfectly ordinary explanation, and then everything would be fine. But Beau didn’t appear. 

 

She was gone. She’d left her. Just like Father had said she would. 

 

“Oh, don’t cry, my flower.” Jester hadn’t realised she’d started crying, but as soon as her father had said it she felt tears stinging her eyes. “We’re going home now.”

 

Father had been right the whole time. His hands slipped around her shoulders, pushing her forwards and away from the edge of the roof. He lifted one hand while Jester stood there, stunned, trying to vain to come up with some kind of explanation that didn’t involve admitting that Beau had abandoned her.

 

A shimmering dark green door apparated in front of them, opening without anyone touching it and revealing a miasmic entryway, impossible to truly see what was on the other side. Father led Jester through it, and found herself deep in the forest, the moonlight casting shadows that suddenly seemed so much scarier than they had before.

 

“Don’t worry, Jester, I’ll make sure she’ll never be able to hurt you again.” Father said, guiding her along the path, towards a massive stone and vine-covered wall that Jester vaguely recognised from the previous day. 

 

“But she- she was so nice to me.” Jester’s voice hesitated, not wanting to admit that Beau had kissed her. That she’d kissed Beau. That felt too private, too precious, and her stomach was churning with too many emotions to figure out how she felt about it now. 

 

“That’s what people do.” Father tutted, stroking her hair reassuringly. “They lie and pretend to get what they want, and then they leave bright and innocent people like you in their wake.”

 

There was a silence, and Jester nodded slowly, wringing her hands together, trying to stop herself from crying. Father never liked to see her cry. 

 

“I hate to say I told you so, darling.” Father said, chuckling loosely to himself. 

 

Jester sniffed, rubbing at her eyes. “You were right. I’m sorry.”

 

“I’m sure I’ll be able to forgive you.” A hand patted her shoulder, as they walked through an illusion of a rock wall, back into the hidden cove with the tower that Jester had called home for her entire life. 

 

It was hard to imagine that barely half an hour ago, she’d actually considered not coming back. Or at least, not staying there all the time. She’d flirted with the idea of sneaking out again every now and then, meeting up with Beau, exploring through the forest, seeing so many beautiful things she’d only dreamed about.

 

It was like a chair had been swept out from underneath her, and she was in that split second moment where you were falling in the air, suddenly realising that everything was going wrong, but not yet crashing into the floor. She was pretty sure the floor was quickly approaching. 

 

Father took her up into the tower through an old rusted door and staircase that Jester hadn’t even known existed. The air was musty, a thin layer of dust covering everything from a few days of not being cleaned. It would take her a while to clean everything up again, Jester thought dimly.

 

Tables and chairs were overturned, drawers pulled out of their cabinets, from where Father must have searched for her when he’d returned to the tower, until he’d found the satchel with the crown. He’d been so worried, and he had been completely right. 

 

They went into Jester’s room, where her father went through the process of completely unbraiding her hair. They were back home now, after all. There was no point in keeping it braided now. Jester sat sullenly on her bed as he took out every flower, letting it drop into a basket. By the time the last one was gone, the laid brain undone, her hair fell in front of her face, her head tilted down.

 

“There…” Father said, before pausing. A finger rested underneath Jester’s chin and tilted her head upwards, towards her father. “Oh, I know it hurts. But you’re safe now. You’ll be safe forever now.” 

 

She forced herself to nod, the pit in her stomach growing ever stronger with each passing second. She plastered a tiny smile on her face, not trusting herself to do a bigger one or else she knew Father definitely wouldn’t believe it. Her father smiled a little in return, patting her cheek before standing up, the basket of tiny flowers in his arms.

 

“I’ll make your favourite dinner now that you’re safe and sound.” He said, before spinning out of the room, the door closing behind him with a gust of magical wind, and she was alone. Again.

 

Her vision fuzzy at the edges, Jester pulled her legs up onto her bed, the same bed she’d had all her life that was almost too small for her, with mismatched blankets that were covered in paint stains, painstakingly knitted by her father even though she knew he wasn’t a very good knitter. 

 

Hugging her knees to her chest, she wiped at her eyes again, trying to stop the tears from flowing. It just… it just  _ didn’t make sense _ . Why? 

 

She’d been so certain. So certain that Beau wouldn’t leave her like that. Beau had  _ promised  _ to come back. You can’t just break promises. You can’t just run away.

 

Then again, a tiny voice whispered. Beau had done a lot of running away. She’d run away from the monks, she hadn’t wanted to help Jester until she knew she had the crown, she probably would’ve run away from her family if they’d not sent her away before she had the chance. She wanted to run away from the whole kingdom. Why had she fooled herself into thinking she wouldn’t run away from Jester? 

 

But she’d been so sure. Beau had bought her presents, had saved her from the guards, had comforted her in the cave, had done so much to make the lantern festival magical for her, had kissed her. So why?

 

She fell back onto her back, hands digging into the pockets of her dress to pull out the small folded up flag Beau had given her, with the two statues nestled safely inside of the king and queen. 

 

A part of her just couldn’t abandon the hope that there was an explanation for all of this. Her father had to be wrong. But he was never wrong.

 

Right? 

 

He’d never lied to her, not to hurt her, not intentionally. Just to keep her safe. Because he loved her. Maybe he’d exaggerated a bit about how scary the outside world was, but he didn’t mean to.

 

Grimacing, Jester rolled onto her side, placing the two tiny stone statues on the bed. They didn’t stand up properly on the uneven blankets, so she had to hold them up with one hand, looking at them sadly. The king and the queen had such a sad story. Everything had been so amazing for them, until they’d lost their daughter.

 

Their daughter with silver hair and blue skin and the same birthday as Jester. The same age as Jester.

 

She blinked. 

 

No. 

 

No, that was stupid. Her father didn’t look anything like the king. Besides, kidnappers don’t care about people. Kidnappers were evil people, and her father wasn’t evil. He wasn’t. 

 

Thoughts were swimming in her head, stomach churning and doubt rising inside her throat. No, that was  _ stupid _ .

 

She rolled over onto her back, trying to ignore the two stone statues that sat there, almost tauntingly, just next to her on the bed. She stared up at her ceiling, which she had so lovingly painted over the years. Full of flowers and stars and a few dicks subtly hidden here and there (she always liked to hide them for Father to find and pretend to scold her over). Whenever she found it hard to sleep, she liked to look up at her ceiling, comforted by the painted silver petals that sometimes seemed to glow in the darkness.

 

Hang on a moment. 

 

Eyebrows knitting together, Jester looked up at the paintings a bit more closely, the patterns tugging at her memories in a strange way. 

 

It was a relatively detailed pattern, the petals curved with different lines and patterns drawn over them. Jester had always liked drawing and painting flowers, and this particular pattern was one she often repeated, almost subconsciously. It had just felt… right.

 

But now… now it felt very strange. 

 

Instinctively her hands clenched, and she found they closed around the rough fabric of the flag Beau was pulled down from a  banner for her. Another tiny gesture that just didn’t make sense when compared to what she’d done hours later. 

 

The flag was a simple navy blue colour, with the emblem of the Nicodranas kingdom sewn into it in the centre.

 

A silver flower. 

 

Jester’s eyes widened as she stared down at the flower on the flag, then up at the ones on her ceiling. 

 

They matched. Almost identically. Almost down to every single dot, every single stroke. 

 

But that didn’t make sense at all. Jester had never left this tower before just a few days ago. She’d been born in this tower and raised in this tower. Her mother had died in childbirth. There was  _ no way she could know about that flower symbol so how had she recreated it so perfectly?  _

 

She could feel her breath begin to quicken, her heart begin to thud in her chest, a single explanation rising from the depths of her mind no matter how much she pushed against it.

 

There was no way. 

 

It was impossible.

 

It had to be impossible.

 

Because if it wasn’t it meant her entire life was a  _ lie _ . 

 

Father had never lied to her. Except when he’d told her so many stories of how the outside world was dangerous, when so much of it was so beautiful. When he’d said that everyone would try to harm her, but so many people had been so kind. They had braided her hair and helped her escape from guards and bought her statues and kissed her on rooftops. 

 

Father had never tricked her like  _ this  _ before. She knew he could if he wanted to, he had magic, he could be in one place and then teleport to another, he could change the colours of fire and he could make things float and… he could make things look like things that they weren’t. 

 

He could make people look like someone else. 

 

If Beau had been running away from her, why had she doubled back, making sure that Jester would see her? Beau was smart, why wouldn’t she try to leave Jester unaware for as long as possible? 

 

Her throat felt dry, her fingers beginning to tremble. Her room suddenly felt so, so small, so terrifyingly small when compared to how big and open the outside world had been. 

 

The king and queen had lost their daughter, their princess, when she was only a baby. A baby with the same birthday as her. A baby with the same skin, the same hair. A baby that the queen released lanterns for every year on the same night because she hadn’t yet been found. 

 

Missing. Gone. Hidden.

 

Lost.

 

A baby from the kingdom with an emblem of a flower that Jester had painted all over her walls even though there should be no way she knew it existed. A dozen threads were pulling together in her mind, connecting all the tiny bits of scattered information that when combined, created a picture that she couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen sooner. 

 

“Jester! Dinner’s ready!” Father’s voice was so cheerful, but it had never sent such a shiver down Jester’s spine. She froze, eyes wide. Her tower had always felt so safe, had always been home. 

 

Now it felt like anything but.

 

“Jester! Come on darling, you need to eat!”

 

Oh balls. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sipping tea* so. here we go babey.
> 
> Look I don't have a super smart excuse for why no one could figure out Jester was the Princess. Same reason no one figures out Clark Kent is Superman even though they look the same. No one expects Superman to be having a dayjob as a reporter. Similarly, no one expects the Super Lost Princess to just randomly show up in the Kingdom and not hightail it straight to the castle. Most of the kingdom thinks she's dead tbh, it's been eighteen years.
> 
> Anyway yay suspension of disbelief!!!


	16. Chapter 16

Fuck her head hurt. 

 

Beau groaned, her limbs feeling stiff and sore, the back of her head throbbing like she was having the worst hangover in her life. Or like it had been slammed directly into the ground over and over. 

 

She tried to open her eyes only for a fresh wave of nausea to wash over her, her stomach churning. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Didn’t feel like there was much else to say. 

 

For a few moments she lay on whatever uncomfortably hard surface she was laying on, grimacing and waiting for her body to get at least slightly used to the pain. She could feel hair brushing against her nose and she reached up a hand to try and tuck it behind her ear, only to find her other hand lifting up as well.

 

Finally able to crack her eyes open without seeing stars dancing everywhere, she glanced down to see manacles around her wrists. 

 

Shit.

 

She looked up, seeing a cell door in front of her. Behind her, a barred window that let some light stream through. Judging by how bright it was, it was at least mid-morning. 

 

Balls.

 

She peered outside the cell door, seeing two guards standing on the opposite wall, both looking into her cell with a watchful eye, dressed in the gleaming armour of the royal guard.

 

_ Fuck _ . 

 

She was in jail. Arrested by the royal guards. The two standing outside her cell had noticed her staring at them, exchanging a quick look before nodding, one of them silently slipping away. 

 

Gritting her teeth, Beau pulled herself up into a sitting position against the wall of the cell. They hadn’t even bothered to throw her onto the standard issue bed, which was just rude, really. She slowly maneuvered her hands to feel the back of her head, wincing when she touched it, her hands coming away with flaky and sticky clumps of dried blood. It wasn’t bleeding anymore, at least. 

 

Her chin had more dried blood, and her chest wasn’t bleeding but hurt like absolute hell. It had been a while since she’d been beat up badly. The next time she saw those Shepherd Brothers, she was gonna eviscerate them. Them and Jester’s dad.

 

Jester’s dad. Jester.

 

Beau’s eyes widened at the memory of having left Jester alone. Having left her  _ wide open  _ to her piece of shit father — and there was no question now, not now that she’d met the man. — swooping in and whisking her home. 

 

Jester probably thought she’d abandoned her. Crap. Gods, she’d fucked this up big time. She had to get to her. Knowing what she did now, there was no way she could let Jester continue to live with him. Everything she’d heard about him had been red flags, but her brief encounter with him had been a giant fucking ship sail drenched in blood and waving merrily in the breeze. 

 

She had to get out of here. She had to get to Jester. 

 

“Dairon.” One of the last voices she wanted to hear startled her out of her quick scan of the room to find things she could use to escape (there was very little to work with, unfortunately).

 

Sure enough, her own asshole who didn’t deserve to be called a father was standing in front of her cell, an irritatingly smug and triumphant smile on his face. The visor on his helmet was pulled up, and his hands were behind his back. She hadn’t seen him look this pleased in a very long time, as he waited for her to… well, who knew what he thought she would do. Beg for her life? Try to get back in his good graces?

 

Fuck that. She had bigger problems. 

 

“Amaury.” She said blandly. The longer she got him talking, the more time she had to figure out a plan. “Didn’t know you’d forgotten my actual name. I’m wounded.” 

 

“You abandoned that name when you abandoned your birthright and became a criminal.” Amaury Lionett scowled, while Beau stared very hard at the window to her cell, trying to gauge whether she’d be able to kick the bars out. Not a chance, she decided. 

 

“Interesting.” She mused, just biting back a smirk when she heard him growl. If there was one thing he hated more than his only daughter rebelling, running away and stealing relics of the state, it was not being given the attention he thought he deserved. 

 

“You would do well to show some respect!” His voice was laced with thinly concealed anger, before he audibly inhaled. “But in the end, it will do you no good.” 

 

Frowning, Beau glanced over at him. There was no smug smile on his face anymore, not even rage or fury. Instead, he’d steeled his face to be neutrally, almost unnervingly passive, the same face he’d used when he told Beau she was going to be sent to the monastery and that no, she didn’t have a choice. 

 

“You have brought this upon yourself, Beauregard.” And if Beau hadn’t been on edge before, she  _ definitely  _ was now. 

 

As far as she knew, her father had refused to utter her name even once ever since she’d left that monastery. Even just thirty seconds before, he’d practically claimed she didn’t have the right to it anymore. 

 

“You threw away your life, and now you’ll face the consequences.” 

 

Beau’s eyes were wide. “What the fuck are you talk-”

 

“Beauregard Lionett.” She could say the way her father’s jaw was set, like the words were painful. “You have been charged with high treason against the crown and grand larceny for the theft of the Crown of the Crown Princess Azurine, along with forty eight separate counts of thefts of jewels, gold, and other valuables, twelve counts of assault or attempted assault, and twenty five counts of resisting arrest. For these crimes, you have been sentenced to hang at high noon on this day.”

 

Her father paused, staring her directly in the eyes while Beau sat there, stunned. She’d always known that if she was caught,  _ if  _ she was caught, this could be the consequence. She’d almost relished it, feeling like she was skirting death every time the guards chased after her, every time they nearly got her. 

 

But knowing that and having it all catch up to her were two very different things. No. This couldn't be happening. She had to get to  _ Jester  _ she couldn’t-

 

“If you have any final requests, make them now.” Her father’s voice had grown cold, not a hint of regret, of a wish that it didn’t have to turn out this way. Had he made the order? He had to have. He had probably been delighted to sign the declaration.

 

Her throat was dry, the weight of everything she’d done and everything she’d failed to do crashing around her. No. It couldn’t end like this. She  _ couldn’t let it end like this.  _

 

Left without an answer, her father tilted his head upwards ever so slightly, staring down at her with so little emotion it would’ve been concerning if Beau wasn’t so focused on trying to figure out a way to escape dying. 

 

“You have two hours.” His words barely made it to her brain, and when he strode away without looking back, she hardly noticed. She couldn’t die. She had to get to Jester. 

 

————————————-

 

What was she going to do. What was she going to do. Was there anything she could do?

 

Jester was panicking. 

 

Father had lied to her. He’d lied to her for her entire life and now he expected everything to go back to the way it was because  _ he didn’t know that she knew he was lying _ .

 

Beau had been right to be suspicious of him. To press her and ask why.  _ Why  _ did he never let her leave the tower. Because he was afraid she’d find out the truth. That she’d leave him. All along, he had just been trying to keep her locked up. A prisoner.

 

She wasn’t sure how she’d managed to get through the tensest dinner of her life without bursting into tears, but Father seemed to assume she was still stunned by Beau’s betrayal, which Jester now doubted had really been a betrayal. She’d not even managed to close her eyes long enough to even  _ think  _ about going to sleep, too busy staring in a daze at the dozens of moondrops painted on her walls both visibly and subtly, hidden inside patterns of other paintings. 

 

To think, the clues had been there all along, but all it had taken was one tiny moment of realisation for everything to fall into place. Now that it had, she didn’t know what to do. 

 

In the morning she sat cross-legged on her bed, the two small statues of the King and Queen in her hands, resting on top of her lap. Her actual parents. The ones she’d been stolen from. 

 

She’d always thought her mother had died giving birth to her. Had thought Father never talked about her because it hurt him so much. Picturing her, Jester had always imagined a woman who looked like her. A blue tiefling, with freckles and soft silver hair and strong arms always ready for a hug. 

 

She’d barely caught a glimpse of the Queen while she and Beau had been watching the beginning of the lantern ceremony. A tall woman with red skin, not blue. With dark reddish-brown hair, not silver. Her mother. Who had been grieving for her husband and her daughter for eighteen years. 

 

Who still lit lanterns for them every single year, hoping that one day they might find their way home. To think, she had been  _ so close _ . So close…

 

Her father, her biological father, she didn’t even know how to feel. He was still missing, wasn’t he, just like she technically was. From his statue and the mural she’d seen, she knew he had blue skin, which she supposed was where she’d gotten hers from. He seemed strong, proud, regal. The kind of man who would go to the ends of the world to find his lost child. 

 

Just like she’d always thought Father, her fake father, would do. And he would. But not because he loved her, or cared for her, like the King did. He only cared for her hair, her magic. Had he ever really loved her at all?

 

She… she was a princess. She had a mother. A father. A family. A  _ home _ . And Father, who didn’t deserve the name, but kept it simply because she didn’t have anything else to call him, he’d  _ stolen  _ her from that. He’d denied her her life, for  _ eighteen years _ .

 

Fear and dumbfounded shock began to give way to slowly bubbling anger, her hands beginning to shake. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, the stupor she’d fallen under since the previous night wilting away. She had to get out of here. 

 

“Jester? What are  _ those _ ?” Jester looked up to see Father standing in her doorway, the remnants of a soft smile (fake) melting into a tight, carefully neutral expression. 

 

If Jester had not recently had one of the most emotionally turbulent nights of her life, she might’ve been able to say something less suspicious. She might’ve been able to come up with a plan, to sneak away in the dead of night, to trick Father into leaving again, to do  _ something _ . 

 

Instead, she saw the man who’d pretended to be her father for so many years, who had  _ lied  _ to her for her entire life, and she saw red. 

 

“You  _ stole  _ me.” Her voice wavered, and she held the statues of her actual parents tight in her hands, safe. “I’m the princess, aren’t I?”

 

Father’s face almost seemed to crack, his lips quirking and one eye twitching and when he spoke, he sounded genuinely shocked. “W-what? Jester, I don’t know what you’re talking about-”

 

Jester slid off her bed and stood up, planting her feet firmly on the ground, willing the tears that were building not to fall, lest she lose her nerve.

 

“Nicodranas has a lost princess with blue skin and silver hair who went missing eighteen years ago, and every year they release lanterns to help her find her way home on her birthday.  _ My  _ birthday.” With every word she found her voice growing louder, more confident. 

 

“If this is some kind of elaborate prank, it isn’t amusing, Jester.” Father snapped. “Stop talking about this nonsense!”

 

“You stole me from my family! You kept me locked up here for my entire life!” 

 

“I don’t know where you got these ideas, but you know why you stay up here!” Her Father seemed to collect himself, matching her voice in intensity and beating it in volume, his hair beginning to flare from an unseen wind. “The people out there would only  _ hurt  _ you, just like how that criminal abandoned you!”

 

“You’re wrong! Beau, or- or whoever you disguised as her, wouldn’t have been dumb enough to run back  _ towards  _ me if she was trying to run away!” Jester’s voice hitched when she said Beau’s name, the uncertainty of where the criminal really was, what she was doing, tearing at her heart. “Nearly everyone I saw in the days I was out were wonderful! They braided my hair, and told me stories, and played music! They were nothing like you said they were!” 

 

Now Father’s face was alight with true fury, and he stepped into her bedroom, eyes widening when Jester didn’t so much as flinch. “You- you insolent child, you have  _ no idea what you’re talking about-” _

 

But she wasn’t about to let him lie to her again. “No! You were wrong about everything! You’re not my father, you’re a fraud and a thief!” 

 

Without another word she burst forward, pushing past him to stalk out of her bedroom. He was so stunned by her even having the  _ gall  _ to try it that for a few moments he didn’t react, and she made it halfway down the stairs before he shouted after her. 

 

“Young lady, where are you going?” He was almost screaming by now, all measures of control and calm erased from his face. 

 

“Outside! I’m going to find my  _ real  _ parents! I’m going to find  _ Beau!”  _ Jester didn’t look over her shoulder, already preparing to loop her hair around a hook so she could jump out of the tower like she had just three days ago. 

 

“She’ll be dead by the time you find her!” Father snapped, and Jester stopped cold, feeling all her rage freeze in her veins, her heart skipping a beat. Slowly, she pivoted to face her Father again, standing at the top of the stairs, a smug grin on his face.

 

“What… what did you do?” 

 

“Handed her to the royal guard to face punishment for her crimes. Along with some gold to ensure she faces the maximum sentence, not that they needed much persuading. I hear the captain has a personal vendetta against her.” 

 

Maximum sentence. They were going to… no, no no no. Jester’s breath caught in her throat, a hundred different images of a hundred different possibilities jumping to her the forefront of her mind. 

 

“It’s what she deserves.” Father was beginning to walk down the stairs, with not a hint of irony. “There are thousands of girls like her in the world. Weak, brash, foolish. But only one of you, my flower.” 

 

“Don’t call me that.” The first tear slipped down her cheek, and she took a step backwards, not wanting to get allow him to get any closer.

 

She tried to take another one, only for her legs to suddenly lock up, her arms freezing in place where they were hugging herself, her entire body stiffening. Panic gripped her heart, even her tears seeming paralysed. She’d never seen or heard of Father using magic like this before. Certainly not on her. 

 

Father got to the bottom of the stairs, his face ever so slowly relaxing, all the anger bleeding out of it until it was as measured as it usually was, with barely a hint of a smile. “I can’t let you leave, my flower.”

 

Jester struggled against the spell or curse or whatever it was, but her body refused to move, seemed absolutely stuck to do anything but breathe and make her heart beat faster and faster until she could hear it pounding. 

 

No. No no no. She could feel the sunlight on her back from the window. She was  _ so close _ . 

 

A hand stroked her hair, unaffected by the spell. Father inhaled sharply. “I have spent too many centuries keeping you safe. Keeping you hidden. I refuse to lose you.”

 

Jester’s breathing quickened, not even bothering to try and figure out why Father was talking about centuries, how that could make sense. She just had to get away. 

 

But she was stuck. Stuck and helpless and unable to do anything but watched as the man strode away from her, rummaging through some drawers and pulling up some floorboards before procuring a set of chains, some rope.

 

“We’re leaving.” His voice was cold as ice, no longer looking at her. “I should’ve gotten out of this fucking kingdom years ago.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here We Go Babey, we're really in the endgame now (: (: (: (: (: (:
> 
> have i mentioned how much i hate the traveler in this fic yet (i have mixed feelings on the traveler in canon) and also beau's dad?? (both here and in canon)


	17. Chapter 17

By the time the guards returned for her two hours later, Beau had a plan. Well, to be accurate, she sort of had a plan. But ‘knock out the guards and run like hell’ had worked out brilliantly for her up until now, so why fix what wasn’t broken?

 

It wasn’t like she could think of anything else. 

 

Of course, they were obviously expecting her to try something, since they had two guards just to hold her down while a third unhooked the chains of her manacles from the wall, three more waiting outside with weapons drawn. She didn’t resist when they did so, glaring them down and hoping they knew that she was just waiting, waiting for the perfect moment. 

 

Pretending that she knew exactly what she was doing went a long way to distracting her from how quickly her heart was beating, how much panic was slowly building. 

 

“Sure is a lot of muscle for lil ol me.” She plastered on a smug smile as they hauled her to her feet, biting back a wince from the still throbbing pain in her ribs. “Captain afraid of me?”

 

“He’s not taking any chances.” One of the guards said.

 

Beau huffed, trying to wrench her arms out of their grip and walking sullenly when that failed. She had to do something  _ fast _ . Her eyes scanned the hallways, making note of the next set of corners. If she managed to knock the legs out from the guards holding her just as they passed the corner, she might be able to grab a weapon before the ones behind her turned it, giving her a chance to take out the ones in front and perhaps get some distance. 

 

There were at least half a dozen ways that could go terribly wrong, but since when had she ever made a foolproof plan?

 

She took a deep breath, steeling herself and preparing to countdown the seconds to strike, when a small orange creature meandered around the corner. The cat sat himself in the middle of the hallway, meowing up at them. 

 

The guards in front paused, glancing at each other. Beau squinted, staring down at the oddly familiar-looking cat. He seemed to be making direct eye contact with her, head tilting as he continued to meow. 

 

“Where’d a cat come from?” One of the guards asked. As a group, they began walking up to it, the ones in front trying to shoo it away. But it stayed still where it was, completely unconcerned. Something strange was going on. 

 

Just as she began to remember where she’d seen that cat before, a tall man stepped into the hallway, scooping up the cat. Wait, Fjord?

 

“Oh Frumpkin! There you are!” Fjord acted like he didn’t even notice the guards, scratching Frumpkin before glancing up, an impressively genuine-looking expression of surprise on his face. “Oh! Oh my!”

 

Beau’s mouth dropped open, her mind trying to reconcile the image of Fjord the bartender she knew with the Fjord standing in front of her in the middle of a prison with Caleb’s cat. Because  _ that’s  _ where she knew Frumpkin from. And if Frumpkin was here, then where was Caleb? 

 

“Who the hells are you?” One of the guards that was holding Beau’s arm asked. Fjord immediately held up one hand with palms facing outward, chuckling nervously.

 

“Oh I’m so sorry, friends. My cat here just can’t stop pokin his nose where it doesn’t belong. I was worried he might get into trouble if I didn’t catch him.” He scratched the back of his neck with his free hand.

 

Beau still had no idea what the hell was happening, but if Fjord and potentially Caleb were here, then perhaps she did have a chance. Which meant she had to milk it for everything it was worth.

 

“Well the only one who’ll be getting into trouble will be you if you don’t get out of the way now, sir.” One of the guards in front said, taking a step forward. At the same moment, Frumpkin tried to jump out of Fjord’s grip, and he yelped, stumbling forwards a bit to catch him, conveniently putting himself right in front of the guard again, blocking his path. 

 

“Really? That sounds mighty interesting, where are you going with this uh-” Fjord looked properly at Beau for the first time, looking her up and down, perhaps trying to gauge how injured she was. “-this prisoner here?”

 

“Execution.” Beau said, hoping Fjord heard the slight edge to her voice and got the hint that  _ they needed to do something quick _ . 

 

Sure enough, Fjord’s eyes widened, and when he spoke again, it was a bit faster. “Oh my. Well that certainly is something. I’m sure she did something to deserve it!”

 

“You needn’t worry about it.” The guard said again, beginning to sound irritated. “Get out of our way.” 

 

Frumpkin tried to squirm out of Fjord’s grasp again and this time succeeded, not that Fjord looked too upset by it. Frumpkin landed smoothly on the floor and promptly pelted his way around the legs of Beau and all the guards, all of them jumping at the sudden movement, trying to avoid stepping on the seemingly skittish cat.

 

At the same moment, Fjord stepped forward, the scent of the sea filling the air as a greenish light flashed, a falchion appearing in his hand with a splash of ocean spray, raising to strike at the closest guard. 

 

Behind her, Beau heard two thuds in quick succession, followed the sound of two bodies slumping to the floor. The two guards that were holding onto her shouted in surprise, one of them automatically letting go of her to try and deal with Fjord, the other just tightening his grip on her upper arm.

 

Not for long.

 

With one move Beau kicked out the legs of the guard who’d let go of her, sending him stumbling to his knees, before stepping to the side and uppercutting the guard who hadn’t, wrenching her arm out of his grip as she did. Another leg sweep sent him to the floor, and she stomped on his chest for good measure, hoping it would be enough to keep him down. She bent down to pocket a couple daggers from the guard, hers having been presumably confiscated after being arrested.

 

Glancing behind her, Beau was shocked to see Yasha there, greatsword in her hands, glancing down at the half unconscious bodies of the two guards she’d attacked. Behind her, Caleb was holding Frumpkin and looking quite pleased with himself, Nott walking beside him with a crossbow drawn. Caleb and Nott she’d expected to see considering Frumpkin’s presence, even if she’d rarely interacted with the man outside occasional conversations in the Evening Nip. But Yasha? What was she doing here?

 

“You just can’t resist trouble, can you?” A cheerful voice cut through the pounding in her head, and she looked back to see Molly had appeared next to Fjord, using his scimitars with great zeal to block a strike from one of the two guards left standing, while Fjord knocked the other one to his knees. 

 

“What the hell are  _ you  _ doing here?” Beau snapped, before glancing back over her shoulder to Yasha, Nott and Caleb. “What are any of you doing here?”

 

Molly kicked the final guard in the chest, sending him crashing to the floor with a groan, flicking his head back and sighing theatrically before answering. “We found out you’d gone and gotten yourself arrested, that’s what.” 

 

“And why do you care?”

 

“Oh, I was perfectly content leaving you alone to rot.” Molly shrugged, and it was impossible to tell if he was serious or not, not that it stopped Beau from scowling. 

 

“Stop folding your arms.” Nott called out, and Beau glanced down to see the goblin standing next to her, having traded out her crossbow for a set of lockpicks. “I’ll get those chains off.” 

 

Molly smirked, before continuing. “Nott here apparently noticed you running around with a satchel while we were all busy enjoying the festival like normal people.”

 

Beau scoffed at the insinuation that any of them were ‘normal’. “That wasn’t me.”

 

“Ja, we figured that when a blink dog pounced and the illusion broke.” Caleb said. “Nott wanted to see what Laurence Shepherd was doing disguised as you, and we found the crown in the satchel.”

 

“That’s when we figured something had gone really weird, because we thought Jester had the crown.” Nott picked the lock with a flourish, the manacles falling away from Beau’s wrists. 

At the mention of Jester’s name, Beau grimaced, glancing down at the groaning guards, all of whom were kept on the ground under threat of being immediately skewered by sword, scimitar or greatsword. 

 

“It’s her fucking father. He made a deal with the Shepherds and attacked me.” Beau rubbed her wrists, stretching her arms before starting down the hallway. “I’ve got to find her.” 

 

“Well we don’t know anything about her father.” Fjord said. “Is she alright?”

 

“She better be, or I’ll kill him. Might do it anyway, actually.” Beau said, before hesitating. “But why did you all come after me?” 

 

“Well if you let us finish our story we might tell you.” Nott stuck her tongue out and Beau rolled her eyes, but listened. “We also found her weasel, Yasha’s holding onto him by the way since  _ apparently _ I’m not allowed to eat him-” There was a muffled, slightly distressed squeak from Yasha’s direction, and Beau raised an eyebrow but said nothing, “-so I was worried something had happened to her cause she’s really nice. Honestly I thought you’d done something stupid and gotten the both of you arrested or something, cause of the blink dog.”

 

“So we went looking around to see if we could figure out what happened.” Caleb said.

 

“And they happened to pass by where Yasha, Fjord and I were watching the festival.” Molly interjected. “So of course we decided to join in. Jester was such a delight, we didn’t want anything to happen to her.” 

 

Beau nodded slowly. Of course they were all more concerned about Jester, who had actually been nice and enthusiastic and liked by everyone. 

 

“I wanted to make sure you were alright too.” Fjord spoke up, his arms folded. “You’re an asshole, but you don’t deserve to get executed.” 

 

“To make a long story short, we didn’t find anything, but in the morning the guards couldn’t wait to brag about how they’d finally caught the thief of the lost princess’ crown. So here we are.” Molly finished the story with a wave of his hands. “You’re welcome.”

 

Beau gritted her teeth, knowing that she’d never hear the end of this for as long as she lived. 

 

But at least that life would be longer than the next ten minutes, she supposed. 

 

“Thanks.” She finally said, before turning back around and looking down the corridors. “But I need to get out of here, I’ve got to find Jester.”

 

“But where is she?” Yasha asked, the rest of the group following her down the hallways, carefully eyeing the downed guards as they left them behind. 

 

“Hopefully, the same place I found her.” Beau closed her eyes for a moment and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I need a horse, or something. I can’t waste anymore time.”

 

They ran through corridors, encountering more guards and fighting their way past them, using the narrow hallways to their advantage. Once they got out of the depths of the prison Beau was able to navigate towards the stable, but by the time they did, what seemed like half the Nicodranian army was gathering, ready to stop her from escaping by any means necessary. Beau refused to give them the satisfaction. 

 

Caleb and Nott caused many a distraction with well-placed arrows and a few flashy spells, spells that were uncommon enough to catch the guards by surprise. Yasha was able to hold many of them back by herself, stopping them from getting cornered while Fjord and Molly weaved back and forth with Beau at the front, clearing a path until they got to the horses. 

 

Beau cut one loose, climbing aboard and immediately scanning for a clear path out of there. She spotted one, and almost began to head off without thinking, before hesitating, glancing at the others. Many of the guards were hanging back warily, surprised by this sudden escape and not prepared to deal with it, but what if they were overwhelmed as soon as she left?

 

“What are you waiting for?” Fjord shouted. “Go!”

 

“You needn’t worry about us!” Molly called out. “Unlike you, we’re very good at not getting arrested!” 

 

Her mouth quirking into a smile, Beau nodded, turning back around and kicking the horse into a gallop as quickly as she could, racing past guards and ducking low to avoid stray crossbow bolts. It had been a long time since she’d ridden a horse but it didn’t matter, as she bolted through the streets and then into the forest, only one thought in her mind.

 

She had to find Jester. Had to get her away from her father, had to convince her that she hadn’t wanted to abandon her. 

 

Distantly she realised she hadn’t even asked Nott where the crown was now. She didn’t care about it anymore. She only cared about Jester. 

 

It felt like she was riding with no direction, but using the few landmarks she could remember from her trip to and from the tower the first time, she managed to find the cliffs that hid the secret entrance. When she found the vines that marked it she practically leapt off the horse, stumbling down the gully and narrowly avoiding a complete faceplant, holding her arms out in front of her to stop herself from slamming face-first into rock if she guessed the location of the entrance wrong.

 

But she hadn’t, feeling her heart catch in her chest when she laid sight on the tower again. The window was open, the air seeming undisturbed, but she couldn’t help a shiver running up her spine knowing that Jester’s father might be there. But Jester might be there too.

 

She briefly considered calling out before immediately shelving that idea, just in case her father was there. Instead she pulled out the daggers she’d stolen from the guard, beginning to climb up the same way she had just three days ago. 

 

The pain in her stomach and head were steadfastly ignored, her legs scrambling for footholds as she pulled herself up as quickly as she could, barely testing each gap she wedged the daggers into if they would hold before removing the other and continuing upwards.

 

She didn’t have any time to waste. 

 

She had to find Jester.

 

Jester had to be okay.

 

She  _ had  _ to be. 

 

As she got closer her breathing became heavy and laboured, and she bit the inside of her cheek trying to stifle it, ignoring the coppery tang of blood in her mouth just as she ignored the injuries the Shepherd Brothers had given her the previous night. The longer she had the element of surprise, the better.

 

Her hand finally felt the smooth wood of the windowsill and she gripped onto it, gathering all her strength for one final pull up, clambering over and falling into the tower, landing as gracefully as she could manage. There was a light thud as she hit and she winced, before quickly standing up in a fighting stance, the daggers in her hand. 

 

Automatically her gaze swept over the room, taking in the drawers that were hanging open, cupboards with doors ajar, like someone had rummaged through them in a hurry and hadn’t closed them. Then she noticed the figure kneeling next to the staircase, hunched over with shoulders shaking, her silver hair falling over her face and obscuring her from view. Her hands were tied behind her back and attached to the railing of the staircase, and for a moment Beau’s heart froze. She was here. She’s here. 

 

“Jester-” The name escaped her lips as she exhaled, nearly dropping the daggers as she took one step, then another, then more all at once, dropping to her knees in front of the tiefling.

 

Jester’s face tilted up, streaked with tears and a gag in her mouth. Her eyes widened as soon as she saw Beau, muffled gasps coming from behind the thick cloth stuffed in her mouth. 

 

“Hey-hey, I’m sorry.” Beau’s voice felt thick, all her emotions bubbling up at once. “I’m so sorry, I promised I’d come back and I didn’t-”

 

Jester stared at her, tears starting anew before she started to strain against the rope that held her, looking up and around frantically. Beau snapped into action, placing one of the daggers on her belt and reaching for the rope to cut Jester loose.

 

“I’ll get us out of here, I’ll explain everything, I promise I didn’t leave you-” She began, preparing to slice through the rope before she sensed movement to her right, jumping backwards just as a piece of wood slammed into the ground where her head had been. 

 

Jester gave a muffled scream, scrambling backwards and pushing herself against the side of the stairs, looking to where the wooden board had come from in horror.

 

“Of  _ course  _ you couldn’t just go and get executed like any other decent criminal.” Jester’s father hissed, tossing the wooden board aside and glaring at Beau from where he stood at the bottom of the stairs. “I’ve been alive for twenty three centuries and  _ you  _ are the biggest thorn in my side I’ve ever had.”

 

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Beau said, glancing in Jester’s direction before focusing on the threat in front of her. “Not that it means much coming from you.”

 

“Still, a thorn can be easily removed and crushed.” The man scowled, and now Beau could recognise his magic for what it was, trying to seep into her bones, force her eyelids to droop. Gritting her teeth, she steeled herself, shaking the spell and holding the dagger in her hand tight, racing forwards before he could realise his spell had failed.

 

His eyes widened with true surprise, and he only narrowly managed to dodge to the side of her strike, but not from her punch with her free hand, which clocked him in the ribs. “Can’t use the same trick twice, asshole!” 

 

He jumped backwards, eyes flaring with bright green light, waving one of his hands in a quick movement. Beau mentally prepared herself to shake off another sleeping spell or something, only for a heavy pot to smash into her shoulder, pieces cutting through her skin and the force slamming her into the wall.

 

Beau grunted, exhaling heavily for just a moment, hearing Jester’s muffled shouts and squirming behind her, before pushing herself off from the wall.

 

This time she went for a punch and then a slash with the dagger, her fist connecting with the evil bitch’s stomach but one of his hands whipping out and catching her wrist, her dagger pointed barely a few inches from his neck. She swept out a leg to try and knock him off-balance but he smoothly stepped to the side and forward, wrenching her arm backwards and holding it there, her grip on the dagger automatically loosening. 

 

Setting her jaw, Beau pushed down the ache and pain, trying to knee the man in the ribs, swinging her other arm out to try and dislodge his grip. She felt the dagger falling from her hand and then she was suddenly being spun around, her arm no longer held in a painful position but her back to the enemy. 

 

She tried to turn back around, catching a glimpse of Jester straining against her ropes, the gag worked halfway out of her mouth, her face alight with fury and fear and determination. 

 

Then Beau felt a searing pain between her ribs, into her lungs, perhaps a few inches from her heart. Her mind stuttered, her breath catching, the feeling of blood begin to fill her throat. One of her legs buckled beneath her, and then the other. 

 

Huh. It had been a while since she’d been stabbed. 

 

As she fell to the floor, she heard Jester’s strangled scream from behind her, a shivering cold racing through her body. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sipping coffee* ok its technically not wednesday yet but Ya KNow What i am TIREd and i have sooo many uni assignments so you can TAKe this chapter and SUFFER like ive had to suffer keeping this in my google docs for the past like MONTH 
> 
> anyway i love u all for reading ur the best also Dont Worrry Beaus Fine She Only Got Stabbed A Little Bit Just A Little


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh sorry did i say Beau got lightly stabbed i meant to say she got SUPER stabbed

No.

 

No, no, no.

 

No no no  _ no no  _ **_no NO!_ **

 

Jester didn’t think she was able to cry anymore until she saw Beau slide to the ground, while Father pulled the dagger from her back, looking down at it with distaste. 

 

“I missed her heart.”

 

Beau coughed, a terrible gurgling sound coming from her throat, trying to pull herself up from the floor. Her shoulder was already bleeding from where the pot had smashed into it, the back of her head was messy with dried clumps of blood, and her chin was red and scraped, blood smeared along the bottom half of her face. 

 

And now blood was seeping into the back of her clothes, far too much far too quickly. Father stepped on her back, forcing back down to the ground.

 

“No!” Jester screamed, her voice choked and warped from the fabric that was still half in her mouth but she frantically wiggled it free, desperately pushing away from the stairs, straining to get to Beau. 

 

She could heal her. She could heal her if she just  _ got to her _ -

 

“You see what you’ve done?” Father’s voice was ice cold and Jester froze, staring up at him, even her sobs momentarily paused. “Now she’ll die because she came for you.”

 

“I’m not the one who put the dagger in her.” Jester snarled, tearing her eyes away from him and focusing on Beau. Her forehead was touching the ground, her eyes squeezed shut and her breathing heavy and shuddering. 

 

“But it’s because of you that she’s here at all. So much pain could’ve been avoided if you had just done what you were told.” Jester’s shoulders heaved because she couldn’t help but find the truth in those words. 

 

If it hadn’t been for her, Beau wouldn’t have come back. Maybe she’d be okay. Maybe she wouldn’t be here, bleeding out in front of her.

 

“You- fucking bastard-” Beau’s face was hard, her hands balled into fists even as she struggled to find the strength to try and get up, to wriggle out from underneath Father’s boot. “Fucking  _ liar _ -”

 

“Now you get to watch her die, and there is  _ nothing  _ you can do to stop it.” Father continued like Beau hadn’t spoken at all, and Jester sobbed. No. She couldn’t let Beau die. She had to  _ do something _ .

 

Beau had done all this, had come all this way for  _ her _ , she couldn’t sit by and watch her die. 

 

“You’re evil!” Jester screamed, throwing herself against the ropes again. But they were tight, perhaps enchanted, unyielding to her struggles. “You’re an evil piece of  _ shit! _ ”

 

Father stared down at her, not even grim satisfaction showing on his face. “You’ve brought this upon yourself. You  _ will  _ watch her die, and then we are leaving this tower forever. Perhaps you will think twice before you go against me again.” 

 

Beau coughed again, which sounded like it might have been mixed with some kind of shout, but the words were lost in her coughing fit, a spray of blood dotting the wooden floor. 

 

No. No no no.

 

Jester couldn’t watch Beau die. She couldn’t. She had to do something.

 

“Please-” She hated how her voice trembled, how her previous anger melted away in the realisation that Beau’s life rested in the hands of the one who’d threatened it in the first place. 

 

Father’s head tilted, one eyebrow rising ever so slightly. “Oh? Jester, you know how I hate mumbling.”

 

“Let me heal her.” Jester stared into his eyes, hoping he saw every part of the hatred she now felt for him and not the desperation she felt in her heart. 

 

“I don’t think so.” Father’s words may as well have been a dagger in Jester’s heart as well as Beau’s, and on the ground, Beau struggled once more.

 

“Let me heal her!” Jester’s voice grew louder, wavering on the final word, tears beginning anew. “Please!”

 

There was a short pause, filled only by Jester’s hiccuping sobs and Beau trying and failing to muffle the pain that each breath wrought. 

 

“And why should I even consider letting you do that?” Father finally said, the hint of a smile curling on his lips.

 

A transaction. A trade. A promise. 

 

What could Jester give him that he couldn’t just take by force? She locked eyes with Beau, who had rested her head on its side, a stream of blood falling from the corner of her mouth. For Beau… who had shown her more real love in two days than Father had in her whole life, who had bought her presents and kept her safe and kissed her beneath the moonlight, who had somehow escaped execution to try and save her…

 

For Beau, she’d give up the world if she could. But she didn’t have the world. She only had her freedom. 

 

“If you let me heal her, I’ll go with you. You won’t have to paralyze me, you won’t have to tie me up. You won’t have to keep me under lock and key because I won’t leave.” Each word fell out of her, and as she said it she saw Beau’s face crumple, her entire body shaking. There was no time. “I’ll go wherever you want me to, and I’ll never try to escape again. I promise.”

 

“No-” Beau’s eyes were shining. “Jes-you can’t.”

 

“Yes, I can.” Jester tried to wipe her cheeks with her shoulder, only succeeding in getting wet tears all over it. 

 

“Not for me,” Beau begged. “Don’t do that for me.”

 

Father stood there, face impassive, seemingly considering the offer.

 

“My life isn’t worth yours.” Beau’s voice broke and Jester could feel her heart cracking. 

 

“Beau, you don’t get it.” She said, hair falling in front of her face. “I-I would never be able to forgive myself if you died while I could do something. I can’t.” 

 

Beau stared at her, mouth tight and body shaking. 

 

“Very well then.” Father’s voice broke through, and Jester’s head snapped up to him, suddenly reminded of the deal she’d just made. “I’m glad we could all come to an agreement.”

 

He stepped off of Beau’s back and she immediately tried to grab for his foot, pulling herself up onto her side, breathing unevenly. Father easily dodged her hand, taking the knife he’d plunged into Beau’s back and easily slicing through the rope around Jester’s wrists.

 

She was free for barely a second before she was racing across the room, catching Beau before she could fall down onto her back, laying her back gently on the ground, biting her lip to stop from openly crying.

 

“You can’t Jes-” Beau was still saying, reaching up her arms to try and stop Jester from gathering her hair together.

 

Jester smiled sadly. “I have to. I can’t let you die.”

 

Beau coughed again, Jester holding her body steady through it, Beau’s hands moving up Jester’s arms to her shoulder, clutching tight like she would never let go. 

 

“I’m so sorry. This never-if it hadn’t been for me-” Beau barked a short hollow laugh. “I ruined everything.”

 

“No- no-” Jester leaned forwards, pressing her forehead to Beau’s, a voice screaming at her in the back of her mind that she  _ didn’t have time, Beau didn’t have time what are you waiting for _ .

 

But she knew that as soon as she healed her, she would have to leave. She wanted to hold onto these moments, as painful as they were, the last moments of freedom.

 

“You gave me the best few days of my life,” Jester whispered. “You made my dream come true. You showed me love.” 

 

“I’m so sorry-” Beau’s voice was stuttering, one of her hands running itself repetitively through Jester’s hair, gathering it into a bunch, her other hand caressing Jester’s cheek, her eyes seeming a little unfocused, shimmering with tears. “I’m so selfish. I’ve always been selfish.”

 

“It’s okay-” Jester said, pulling some of her hair that laid onto the ground and piling it on Beau’s chest. “I’ll be okay.”

 

“No-” Beau breathed in heavily, her entire chest shuddering, the hand on Jester’s cheek dropping down next to her belt. “You don’t… you don’t understand.” 

 

Jester hesitated, her hands pressing over the hair she had pressed over Beau’s chest. “What?”

 

“I’ve always been so selfish. You don’t want to let me die.” Beau choked back a laugh, blood staining her lips. “But I… I refuse to live knowing you’re trapped with a monster.”

 

Dimly, Jester noticed Beau’s hand, the one that had dropped to her belt, suddenly shoot up, past the side of her face. But she didn’t realise what that meant, until she felt her other hand tighten around her hair, heard a sound like a knife tearing through paper, and suddenly felt a weight drop from her head, followed by a dagger falling to the floor.

 

All at once, a shiver ran up her spine, as her hair fell to the floor, lifeless. Stunned, Jester watched the ends of it suddenly change to a brilliant shade of blue, the colour quickly spreading through it like her magic used to.

 

Her magic. No- no  _ wait- _

 

Jester’s hands flew to her head, feeling the suddenly short lengths of hair, uneven and choppily cut, falling in front of her eyes, no longer silver but a dark blue. No-

 

Behind her came a terrible shriek. 

 

Horrified, Jester looked over her shoulder to see Father, his hair grey, his body hunching in over itself, seeming to age centuries in mere seconds. He staggered backwards, bumping into cupboards and closets, knocking over chairs. Throughout it all, he continued to shriek, a terrifying, ear-piercing shrief that only grew more monstrous and inhuman the longer it drew out.

 

He stumbled over to the windowsill, and Jester could see what was about to happen before it did, instinctively reaching out towards the withered wreck of the man she’d called her father for so long as he fell against the open air, his body casting a great shadow into the room for a moment before he fell backwards, skin seeming to fall off his body in flakes as he fell.

 

His cloak fell over the threshold, out of the window, disappearing.

 

And then he was gone.

 

Gone.

 

There was no distant thud. Just the shriek slowly fading to nothing. Even the birds outside seemed to have stopped singing.

 

Jester covered her mouth with her hand, before she suddenly remembered Beau, turning back to her.

 

“Why!” Jester begged, burying her face into Beau’s chest, into the hair that would’ve saved her life. Useless now. Absolutely  _ useless _ . “Why would you do that!”

 

Beau just looked up at her, eyes glassy and mouth twitching into a tiny, wistful smile, her arms now limp on the ground. “I told you.” Her voice was barely louder than a whisper. “I’m too selfish to let you sacrifice yourself for me.” 

 

“You’re so  _ stupid _ !” Jester sobbed, wrapping her arms around Beau and pulling her up into a hug, feeling blood seep through her fingers and only sobbing harder for it. “What am I going to do now?”

 

Beau drew in a shuddering breath. “Live. See the world. Be free.”

 

“But I want to see the world with you!” 

 

“That… that would’ve been nice.” 

 

“I love you.” Jester was pretty sure she was finally running out of tears, her face sticky but her eyes feeling dry, and when she ran a thumb along Beau’s cheek she smeared blood but somehow despite it all she still looked so beautiful. 

 

Beau was smiling, slowly drawing up a hand to Jester’s cheek, wiping away some of the damp tears. “I love you too.” 

 

“I’m so sorry Beau.”

 

“I”m sorry too.” 

 

The whole world seemed frozen, the air seeming still around them. Jester pulled Beau close and held her tight, whispering that she loved her over and over, until she felt Beau take one final shuddering breath, before going slack in her arms. 

 

Jester could feel her heart absolutely shatter, and when she laid Beau down, the warmth beneath her skin already fading away, her face was almost completely calm, as if she were merely asleep. But Jester knew better. 

 

She shoved away the hair that was still piled on her, gripping Beau’s tunic and sobbing dry tears over her body. She brushed loose strands of hair out of Beau’s face, trying to smear away the blood as much as she could. 

 

“I’m so sorry…” She could hardly hear her own voice, looking down at Beau, the sunlight shining on her face. 

 

She just couldn’t believe it. All of it… all of it seemed surreal. Father was gone. Beau was gone. Her magic was gone. She was alone.

 

She was all alone. 

 

Why couldn’t she heal her? Why couldn’t she have been faster? What was the point of all of this, what was the point in ever having magic if she couldn’t use it when she needed it most?  

 

One final tear gathered in the corner of her eyes, sliding down her chins and hovering at the bottom of her cheek for a moment before falling, landing on Beau’s cheek. For a moment, she could have sworn it sparkled, but it must’ve been a trick of the light. 

 

She wiped at her cheeks with the back of her hand to try and avoid most of the blood, but it was a vain effort. Sniffing, Jester looked up around the tower, ransacked by Father in his haste to try and pack before Beau had arrived. 

 

It seemed so empty now. So… abandoned. It didn’t feel like home anymore. Built as a gilded cage and held together on lies, perhaps it had never been home to begin with. 

 

A soft glowing caught her eye and she looked back, only to see a silver stream of pure light floating in front of her, curling and spinning in the air. Jester blinked, her breath catching in her throat. 

 

She knew that silver light, a tiny thread of magic, no thicker than a single strand of hair. Slowly, she let her eyes slide downwards.

 

Where her teardrop had landed on Beau’s cheek, was the epicenter of a steadily growing flower of silver light. It spread along her skin like a tattoo, curling around her closed eyes and down her neck, while other strands left her body, drifting into the air as if buffeted by an invisible breeze. 

 

This was magic. Her magic. But, her magic had been in her hair. Beau had cut her hair. Beau had cut her hair to stop her from healing her so how could her magic still be here?

 

Healing. Her magic healed. 

 

A glimmer of hope sparked in her heart, Jester looked down at Beau’s face, pressing her hands over her chest. Hoping for a heartbeat. Praying for a pulse. Waiting for a miracle. 

 

Please. 

 

Jester had never really been religious. She knew that gods existed, from where they had been named in her stories. But she’d never put much stock in them. But now she prayed to every single god she’d ever heard of, and just for good measure, every hero and heroine of every story she’d ever read. 

 

Bring her back. Please, let Beau live. 

 

The magic curled around her, brushing past her skin like a mother’s gentle touch, as if reassuring her that everything would be alright.

 

And beneath her fingers, she felt a tiny, almost imperceptible thump. Then another. Another. Another. 

 

There was a short, sharp inhale, followed by a just as short exhale. Then a longer one, as Beau’s eyelids fluttered open. 

 

Jester nearly burst into tears all over again, taking Beau’s hands and feeling the warmth return to them, before leaning forwards and pressing her lips to Beau’s, nowhere near as romantic as the one they’d shared under the light of the lantern festival, but just as beautiful. 

 

By the time she pulled away, Beau’s heartbeat was steady again, her breaths coming more easily, her eyes focused, looking up at her.

 

“One of these days I’ll stop being surprised by you…” Beau’s voice was weak but Jester just laughed, pulling her up into a sitting position and hugging her close. “And I’ll be able to kiss you, rather than the other way around.”

 

“You are so dumb!” Jester kept laughing, and after a few moments Beau’s shoulders began to shake from laughter too. “You are so stupid and I love you so much!”

 

“Love you too, Jes.” Beau said, slowly managing to wrap her arms around Jester, resting her head in the crook of Jester’s neck. “Guess we do get to see the world together now.”

 

“I’m never letting you out of my sight again.” Jester squeezed tighter, but not tight enough to be uncomfortable, distantly thinking about all the things they’d be able to do now. She could explore the kingdom, she could go on a boat, she could… she could see her real mother.

 

At the thought of that, she pulled backwards a little, still chuckling. “Hey- hey, guess what.”

 

“What?” Beau murmured, only vaguely seeming to be paying attention.

 

“Turns out I’m  _ totally  _ the lost princess.” Jester grinned, and Beau pulled back, looking dazed to begin with.

 

Then her eyes slowly widened in realisation, and Jester could practically see the puzzle pieces slotting into place. “Holy shit I really am stupid.”

 

Jester burst into giggles again, kissing Beau’s forehead and cheeks and lips and hugging her close again and not letting go until both of them were stiff and sore. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahaha yeet  
> have fun with this   
> #Lesbians


	19. Chapter 19

Beau had not imagined she’d be back in Nicodranas so soon after very publicly and very dramatically dodging execution the previous day. She hadn’t imagined she’d be standing in the foyer of the godsdamned  _ royal castle _ without the intention to steal something. 

 

She hadn’t imagined she’d be standing there with her father by the door, glaring her down but unable to do absolutely anything to arrest her, not while the Queen herself had ordered a temporary stay on her execution until this current mess was sorted out.

 

She certainly hadn’t imagined she’d be standing there with Jester right beside her, fiddling with the hem of her dress and waiting for the Queen to arrive, since the current mess was that they had arrived claiming that Jester was the lost princess of Nicodranas, and the Queen wanted to personally see if it was true. 

 

They were both relatively cleaned up, having taken a dunk in a river on the way back to Nicodranas to clean off the blood and dirt. Their clothes were still torn, but it was better than nothing. 

 

“Do you think she’ll like me?” Jester asked. She had been so excited the entire trip here, but it seemed her nerves were finally catching up to her.

 

Slipping her hand into Jester’s and squeezing tight, Beau put on her most reassuring smile. “She’ll love you. Fjord and all the others busted into prison because they thought you might’ve gotten arrested with me, that’s how much they liked you after about two hours of being around you. The Queen? She’s gonna fall in love immediately.” 

 

Fjord and the others had surprisingly managed to avoid arrest, thanks to a few carefully timed spells from Caleb and a hastily broken down wall by Yasha giving them an unexpected escape route. But after word had spread that someone claiming to be the lost princess had appeared alongside the alleged thief of said princess’ crown, they had resurfaced (with the crown, which Nott reluctantly gave up, and the return of which was probably the only thing that kept them from being immediately thrown in jail), eager to see what what would happen next and dump their own names into the story for bragging rights.

 

They also appeared to return Sprinkle, who Jester was delighted to see again, and Nugget, who was delighted to see everyone again.

 

Jester smiled, and Beau quickly pressed a kiss to her horn, inwardly smirking at how pissed off her father must be right now. “You’ve got nothing to worry about, Jes.”

 

“I know. I’m amazing.” Jester pushed some of her newly cut hair out of her face. It was a very shoddy haircut, but given the circumstances, it could’ve been worse. Beau thought Jester looked super cute anyway, and dark blue hair was prettier than silver anyway. 

 

There was a short pause, and then Jester glanced towards the ornate door that led further into the castle, before talking again. “Were there ever lots of other people who thought they were the lost princess?”

 

“Not really. Blue tiefling with silver hair with the exact birthday as you is a fairly hard combo to fake.” Beau said, before making a face. Wow, she really had been blind. How had she not figured it out herself?

 

Jester hummed in response to that, leaning into Beau. They stood there for a few moments, before Beau heard the sound of hurried footsteps growing louder and louder. The door opened, and in the open doorway stood the Queen. She was a tall, attractive woman, her hair falling around her shoulders in loose curls.

 

She looked just as nervous as Jester probably felt, holding her dress up a little, eyes searching the room before falling on Beau and then Jester. Beau felt Jester stiffen up for a moment before relaxing, straightening up a bit, locking eyes with the Queen and neither of them looking away. 

  
“Azurine?” The Queen’s voice was hesitant, stepping forward.

 

Jester began to step forward as well, and Beau let her hand slip out of her grasp, hugging herself with her arms as she watched the two tieflings stop just a few feet away from each other, hesitating. 

 

“Uh-” Jester paused, biting her lip. “Hi. I’m Jester.”

 

Queen Marion looked her up and down, closing the gap between them and cupping her cheek with one hand, resting the other on her shoulder, eyes widening as soon as she did. “Jester…”

 

Jester visibly gulped and began to talk, her voice quick. “I know I don’t have silver hair, I used to, but Beau cut it all off and now I don’t but I-I really think I might actually be your daughter because we have the same birthday and-” 

 

She was cut off by the Queen throwing her arms around her, holding her close. “Oh my daughter, my baby-”

 

Beau saw Jester’s eyes widen, her mouth hanging open, before her arms wrapped around the Queen as well. Beau watched with a bittersweet smile. She couldn’t help her gaze sliding over to her father, who was glaring her down and absolutely fuming. 

 

_ Betcha thought you got rid of me _ , Beau mouthed very clearly, knowing he’d understood when his glower deepened even more. Before she could mouth anything else, Jester and the Queen separated from their hug, holding each others hands with huge grins on their faces.

 

“Omigosh I can’t believe it.” Jester said, looking over her shoulder at Beau and then back at the Queen. “Beau! Beau, look I have a mother!”

 

Beau grinned. “That’s great, Jes!”

 

“Oh, is this who brought you here?” The Queen asked, before looking at Beau properly. “Are you are the criminal?”

 

“... Maybe.” Beau said.  

 

The Queen blinked. “Well… in any case, I truly cannot thank you enough. But I  _ can  _ pardon you for all previous crimes and wrongdoings. Just don’t do it again.” 

 

Beau’s smile widened, and she shot another triumphant look at her dad, who looked like he might explode at any given moment, while Jester squealed in delight.

 

“Your Highness, I’m not sure that is the best idea, given the scope and length of her crimes-” Her father began, before she was interrupted.

 

“She brought my daughter back home to me, Captain.” The Queen said, her face momentarily serious. “I will forgive anything for that.” 

 

“Oh! Oh! Can Beau live in the castle too?” She temporarily let go of her mother’s hand, running over to take Beau’s and drag her over before retaking the Queen’s hand with her other. 

 

“Live in the castle? Why would she need to…” The Queen’s voice trailed off as she looked down at Beau and Jester holding hands, then up at the two of them again. She gasped softly. “Oh.”

 

Jester’s smile faltered for a moment, her hand squeezing Beau’s. “Is that okay?”

 

“Oh darling.” The Queen pulled Jester into another hug, this time dragging Beau into it as well. Oh jeez. She stiffened up for a moment, but the Queen was so warm, her arms gentle and soft, her love and relief seeming to radiate off of her in waves. “Of  _ course  _ it’s okay.”

 

Beau felt a tiny wetness on her cheek and realised the Queen had begun to silently cry, and she carefully rearranged her head to face the centre of the hug she’d found herself in. Jester was pressing in close, absolutely beaming and her eyes squeezed tight. 

 

After a few moments she opened them, catching Beau’s eye and carefully removing her hand from Beau’s, looping it around her shoulders instead and pulling her in even tighter, their shoulders pressed up against each other, Jester’s tail wrapping around her leg. 

 

Queen Marion was pressing kisses to the top of Jester’s head, and a few (though nowhere near as many) onto Beau as well, continuing to thank her, to tell Jester how much she’d loved her and missed her, how she’d always hoped she would find her way back home eventually. 

 

Beau kissed Jester on the cheek a few times as well, leaning fully into the hug and silently accepting the invitation into a new family, one with ten times more love than her old one could even hope to have. 

 

It wasn’t quite the castle she’d imagined herself having when she’d stolen that crown. But when they finally separated from the hug, Beau stood there watching Jester gush with her mother about how beautiful they each were, how handsome Beau was, how both of them had always dreamed to have a mother, to get their daughter back, she knew it was worth it. When Jester bumped her hip against Beau’s and told the Queen how she’d bought her statues and they’d kissed under the moonlight and how Beau had taken a dagger to try and save her, she knew it was worth it. 

 

Even if she’d had to die to see it happen. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and there we have it folks  
> a short epilogue to finish it off full of cuteness and a final fuck you to beau's dad because Fuck You Beau's Dad
> 
> writing this story has been wild and im so thankful to everyone who read commented and kudo's <3 y'all the real MVPs
> 
> Anyway if you're on any of my discord servers where i gush about beaujester at all hours of the night you'd probably know that i've been working on a new fic, a Modern AU (I'm pretty sure I first mentioned one way back in my marius fic but at that point I didn't think I'd actually do it lmao). It's gonna be more Beaujester and it's gonna be Very Long and Slow Burn because dang it we deserve a ridiculously long slowburn romance modern AU too. I've already got it all planned out and a few chapters written up, so once I'm comfortable with it and have a good buffer, you'll see me again very soon (; 
> 
> Also Marion was able to recognise Jester very quickly not only because of her looks but when she touched her cheek, she could feel Jester's skin was cold (because water genasi heritage) and not hot like most tieflings. There's some Fun Facts for you.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi y'all I'm gay. It's about time I added to the lavorregard tag. Shoutout and credit to pocket hazard (a-pocket-full-of-daisies on tumblr) and everyone else on the beaujester discord who gave me the idea and helped me develop it y'all give me life. 
> 
> You can come scream at me about beau, jester, beaujester and critical role on tumblr at idonthaveanyurlideas yeet
> 
> UPDATE: YALL THERE'S FANART HOLY SHIT BY SIZZLEBREADS I CAN'T BELIEVE OH MY GOD https://twitter.com/sizzlebreads/status/1130697726813859840


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